


Over and Over Again

by MangozWriting



Series: Middleborough Isn't Your Average Town [1]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Squips (Be More Chill), F/F, F/M, I'll probably add more tags as the story continues, I'm not saying for which one though, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Original Broadway Cast, Rich has a pet bearded Dragon, Rich's lisp is always there but some people can't read it so i wont write it out, Suicidal Thoughts, The Squip is like all the characters squips combined from the canon verse, Timeloop!AU, Trans Christine Canigula, Trans Jake Dillinger, Tw: Death but they come back alive so, and a pet rat, based off of It too but not really, based on Happy Death Day but not really, does that really count, soul au, technically it is now, there's also a one sided ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2020-12-23 19:31:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 51,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21086624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MangozWriting/pseuds/MangozWriting
Summary: Richard was just supposed to get high school over with, right? It was supposed to be a normal December 20th Friday, but of course, that can't happen can it? Winter break was right around the corner and now Richard was stuck in an infinite loop of his school day, over and over. And then he managed to get killed from the time 10-11PM. And Richard knew nobody else could possibly be in the loop with him.Jake was your cliche, popular boy who has been doing all the clubs he could do in Middleborough. And ever since the loop had started on the Friday of December 20th, he just wanted to go back to not knowing what life threw at him. At least Jake bonded with the other people in the loop, right? There was definitely nobody else but the seven of them.{Indefinite Hiatus}





	1. Chapter One: Rich

Most likely, Richard would never get out of his new life of living in December 20th, forever. Let good old Richard, catch you up on what's been happening for what seems like an eternity. And trust him, it was not fun.

All of it began on that fateful day on December 20th. The day started as usual, with Richard who got out of his bed, already groaning about the day to come forth. He had already had a bad day at school the day before, with Chloe Valentine, the most popular girl, and one of the hottest, in the entire Middleborough school, sneering at him after Richard had walked right into her demon claws. 

Well. Not claws. But Chloe Valentine was still one of the most terrifying people in their school. So, you get the point.

Richard had hoped he wouldn't bump into her, or any of her main friends that morning. Especially Jenna Rolan, she would do anything to remain known by Middleborough forever. But, maybe, Richard would want to _accidentally _bump into Jake Dillinger. Richard would love to say a simple sorry toward Jake Dillinger, and then, then Richard could stare into Jake Dillinger's chocolate eyes that seemed to pull Rich into a trance, without looking like a stalker.

He only admired Jake, of course, obviously, because Richard Goranski is straight as a ruler, for sure. That did not stop him from staring at Jake Dillinger during the two classes that Richard had with him. 

In Art class, Jake sat at the table across the room from Richard, and Richard just adored watching Jake talk to his swimming team friends. And then, Richard's other class with the charming Jake Dillinger, was in Spanish class. Jake sat _right _next to Richard in that class, which made it difficult for him to focus on the actual class.

Now Richard was rambling about Jake, wasn't he? He should be talking about the mess he got into unknowingly. 

When Richard had arrived into the school building that had reeked with hormones and the noises of teens yelling, babbling, and screaming, Richard thought it would still be the same old same old. 

After Richard had managed to squeeze his way through the hallways, he of course, had to bump into the one person he did _not _want to run into. Jenna Rolan was standing right there, her hair now put up into a style Richard had seen before, they were space buns. He stared at Jenna's hair, fabricated with a purple, Richard wanted to dye his hair, but not red. Red was too flashy for him. Maybe a nice light green that went with his bangs. Sea green. Or grass green.

" What are you _staring_ at, stalker?" Jenna hissed toward him, her eyes leaving her phone for just a second. Richard gulped and his eyes darted back and forth between the walls and Jenna Rolan. 

Richard didn't know what to say at the moment, what was he supposed to say to Jenna Rolan? Quick brain. Brain think think. " Your space buns look cool, mind showing me how to do it? Oh, and I like your purple hair," Richard babbled out. Why the hell did he have to say all of that? Too much! Too much!

" I mean, uh, it's not _that_ cool." That wasn't better at all, Goranski. " Gah! Um, they do look cool! I mean, uh, I-" Richard had continued to ramble about various things as Jenna Rolan turned from ready to hunt him down, to just pure confusion. 

" Is something wrong?" Jenna asked, her posture getting more relaxed. When was Jenna ever concerned about somebody's feelings?

" I, Uh, bye!" Richard managed to say, as he rushed down the hallway, avoiding everyone he could. Why had Richard done that? He just made a complete fool out of himself in front of _the _Jenna Rolan. The same Jenna Rolan who once tweeted about an affair going on between two of the teachers in school. There was no way he would ever live this down. 

Richard's day only got worse from what he recalled on Day One of the dreaded day that repeats over and over again. 

It seemed like every time he would leave a class. he would bump into either a popular student at Middleborough, or one of his fellow losers who Richard has chickened out of trying to talk to. 

After his first class, he bumped into Brooke Lohst, she was nice enough, and apologized for what Chloe Valentine had done the day before. But then Rich had made a fool of himself, again, by doing a pick-up line. Brooke Lohst laughed at him, before she walked away to join her friends.

Second class. He bumped into Headphones, one of the people who were unpopular like him, Richard had kept saying apologies toward him, until Headphones had bolted the other direction, like Richard was one of _those _weird kids. 

Third Class. Right into Chloe Valentine, again. Chloe Valentine had screamed, actually screamed, at Richard to watch where he was going, and if he walked into her again, she would ruin his life for a week. Richard almost let a few tears out, and shook like an antelope about to get eaten by the top of the food chain.

Right before Richard's lunch period, a food tray had been splattered all over his new oversized hoodie, gifted by Richard's brother, Adrian. Richard grumbled under his breath as the people around him, except the person who had done this to him, snickered at him.

" All of you be quiet, won't you? I didn't mean to make him look like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!" a voice shouted, Richard couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl. When Richard finally glanced up toward his attacker, well, the attacker who didn't mean to attack. It was a girl, well, he was still assuming. He recognized her from the school play from the winter of last year, she was Juliet.

What exactly was this girl's name again? Wasn't it Rebecca? Or maybe Stephanie? Pretty sure it was Stephanie.

" My sincerest apologies for having my food dump all over you, I really didn't mean for that to happen at all. I was sort of like that pelican I saw at the boardwalk once, which I rarely go to, by the way, because having a huge family does that, you know? Anyway, this big pelican came swooping out of nowhere and _shazam_! It flew right into another pelican, knocking it _right_ into the water!" Stephanie, at least Richard thought that was her name, exclaimed, using huge hand motions, and her voice always changing octaves every sentence. This all happened as they both started getting their food from the line again, as Richard didn't get his food yet, and Stephanie had dropped hers.

Richard nodded along, not really getting what Stephanie was actually saying, but got the main idea of what she was rambling up. Pelican. Swoop. And then a fight or something?

" My name's Christine, by the way. Christine Canigula. You probably heard my last name before, my sister's the striker for the school soccer team. She's a senior," Christine stuck her hand out, waiting for Richard to shake it. Christine? That made sense. She did look like a Christine. Richard accepted Christine's hand, shaking it gently. And judging by Christine's pupils shrinking for a second, he could tell his hands were starting to sweat. 

" Well, uh, my name is Richard Goranski?" Richard's introduction was turned into a question, and Christine's eyebrows raised. Richard messed up. He must have. He just met Christine and now she thought what Chloe Valentine thought of him when he walked into her twice. That Richard was just a pathetic loser. A skank. 

**A nobody.**

" Richard? That doesn't fit you at all. Hm..." Christine went into a moment of thought, leaving Richard to panic and sweat more. His eyes moved to the lunch tables around them, the one that really caught his eye, was Jake Dillinger's table, of course. Richard continued to stare at Jake Dillinger, and his smooth chocolate like skin. Bet it must taste like chocolate too.

What the hell was that thought? 

" Rich! You look like a Rich to me. Mind if I call you Richie though? After all, you seem like a pretty neat person in my opinion," Christine said, as her eyes filled with a small spark. " Mind if we become friends? Only if you would want to though, of course." 

Friends? Richard had never heard that comment toward him ever before. Well, once before. but that...was a very long time ago. And as for the nickname of 'Rich', he liked it. It was short. It came out more fluidly than Richard. 

" I would like that. I also like that nickname. Rich. Sounds like it would fit me," Rich replied shortly toward Christine. Christine gave him a small smile, and patted Richard's, no, Rich's head. Christine had to be at least three inches taller. Lucky her. Rich was simply a short 5'0, and he hated being that height with every cell that constructed his body.

" Hey, uh, would you mind if I-?" Rich started to ask if he could sit with Christine, before she had stopped him in his voice with her own, which was much louder than his voice.

" Now, I bet you probably have your own friends to sit with. And I have my friends Madeline, Lucy, Kim, and my cousin Dustin to sit with. I'll see you soon Richie!" Christine called out as she made her way to the table near the west end. Of course Christine had friends. She was likable and nice. But, Christine was wrong about one thing, Rich didn't have any friends he could talk with. He didn't have anyone if he was being honest.

Rich did technically have one friend though. He could only talk to him in the bathroom during school though. So Rich began to make his way toward the bathroom to eat his lunch, which consisted of macaroni and cheese, a SmartWater drink, and two chocolate chip cookies. 

He closed the stall door behind him, sitting on the toilet to eat his food in peace. And out of his pocket, came his pet rat, Remy. Yes, Rich brought his rat with him to school everyday. Remy was like, his best friend. He got Remy right when he was fourteen, and cherished the rat ever since. Although, Rich was aware Remy would die soon, since poor Remy was two years old, and might die when Rich got in his senior year.

And with that, Rich ate his cold macaroni and cheese with his rat perched on his shoulder, sitting quietly, with not a sound to be heard.

* * *

Now that, that was just the first half of the day of Day One. Rich didn't know what would come after that. 

Right after lunch ended, Rich bumped into Cardigan Kid, now this kid was like, besties with Headphones. If Rich could recall, they met in kindergarten, and they've been inseparable since. 

Guess how Rich screwed this one up. Rich was shoving his way through the crowd of teenagers, and accidentally shoved Cardigan Kid right into a locker. Rich felt the guilt already swirl up inside of him, ready to come vomiting out with numerous apologies and probably tears. Cardigan Kid stared at Rich, his eyes staring at Rich like Rich was in the top of the food chain. _Hah_. Rich snickered thinking about the fact that someone could actually be afraid of him. But that feeling of guilt still never faded away.

And by the end of the long day, Rich would never believed who he would run into next. As Rich was making his way out the halls and out of school, he slipped on his shoelaces, which had always remained untied, and fell right onto Jake Dillinger. The one person he had actually wanted to bump into this whole day. But it wasn't a bump, it was _falling_ right on top of him, causing Jake Dillinger to stumble in his steps. 

What the shit, Rich? Someone doesn't just, fall onto Jake Dillinger. Best person in the world. Light of his life (besides Adrian of course). 

Once Jake had regained his balance, he swished around toward the person who dared making him, the most popular kid in school, stumble in his steps. Nobody would even _think_ about doing that to the great Jake Dillinger.

Compared to Rich, Jake was a giant. A tall 6'2. And what was Rich again? _5'0_? 

Somehow, Jake's expression softened when he saw it was Rich. Why would he do that? Jake had no idea who Rich was. Jake only knew people like Chloe Valentine or Brock or some popular kid.

" You okay there, little dude?" Jake asked, his voice sounding sincere. Rich almost laughed, Jake's nice act was cute, and Rich loved it, but Rich had seen Jake ignore people he accidentally caused pain to, and he knew he had hurt them. 

" M'fine."

" You sure? You're like, four foot eight?"

Rude. 

" Five Foot, actually," was all Rich said. 

That's when Rich made his bad move. 

" You're really cute, by the way. Like, hot, you know?"

Okay, yeah, Rich is not straight. But, _Rich_. What the actual **hell** did he just say to Jake Dillinger? That Jake was hot? And cute? You can _not _any of those things toward Jake Dillinger.

" Sorry to break your heart, but I'm not actually interested?" Jake said, not blinking an eye, as if he said this to many people before, and Jake had. Jake had broken many hearts with just a word, or a sentence. He is that powerful.

Didn't stop Rich from feeling his heart shatter into a million pieces. And his throat started to hurt. His eyes starting to leak with wet, slobby, tears. Jake noticed that and began to say something. Rich stopped him.

" Of course, you're the _great _Jake Dillinger! The Jake Dillinger who won the Swimming State Championship for the past two years! The Jake Dillinger who breaks a girl's heart every week. Guess this is your first time breaking a boy's heart, huh?" Rich's words had escaped his mouth before anything could stop them. And the impact had hit Jake harshly. 

" Watch this, you won't even remember me in a week's time. I'll just be _another _one of those people you destroyed, won't I? But that's fine. Totally fine. Bye, Jake Dillinger."

Rich didn't mean to snap just like that, but the week he had? And the fights he has constantly with his father? Everyday? His bottled up rage was bound to sprout out at someone. And it just had to be Jake Dillinger. 

And later that night, Rich would die. But, that's where the dreaded part had come in. The time loop. And that's the curse Rich as now stuck to live with for probably eternity.

* * *

Now, it's been exactly _three_ years since this time loop had begun. As far as Rich knew, he was the only one stuck in it. The only key difference after maybe Day 20, was that somehow, only seven kids, including Jake, sat at his lunch table. And those seven became a tight knit gang. 

Now it's Day 1095. And Rich felt like he might lose it. He knew too much about every single thing that could occur that day. In fact, Rich had already known what happened throughout the entire school every second. Although, based on different interactions with Rich and other people, some of these things change into something new.

For example, on around Day 107, out of curiosity, Rich yelled at Christine when her food had dumped onto him. That interaction turned into a new interaction where a nasty rumor about him was soon spread out through the school. Like a virus, or a fungus. 

Lucky for Rich, he didn't care since the day would soon reset once he was killed from 10PM-11PM. 

Somehow though, that rumor repeated for maybe fifteen more days, when Rich was found in the boys bathroom crying about it after it became too much, by Headphones Kid (his name is Michael?), the rumor stopped the next loop. 

It seemed as if Rich ever made a bad interaction with anyone, something bad would eventually happen to him by someone in the school.

  * Day 67, Rich went all out on Jake when Jake said he wasn't interested. When he got off his bus stop, he was punched in the face by Jeremy of all people. 
  * Day 895, Rich spilled his food on Jenna Rolan this time instead of Christine. Chloe appeared out of the halls and yelled at him while holding his arm tightly, Rich had marks on his arm for three loop days somehow.
  * Day 356, Rich didn't even do anything wrong in this one, he was just talking with Madeline before Christine came and threatened to get Mr Reyes over if Rich didn't stop talking to Madeline.
  * Day 267,Rich told his AP English teacher that Chloe screamed at him, then his AP English teacher gave Rich detention for lying to him.
  * Day 420, Rich plain out smoked weed at school and got caught after throwing it at Dustin Kropp

So, as you could probably tell, Rich didn't have a very splendid time in his forever going loop. 

As Rich wrote down Day 1095 in his maybe twelfth loop notebook (Luckily he figured out whatever he wrote stayed there) , he got into school, dodging everyone without even taking a look up. But there was always one person he couldn't dodge.

Jenna Rolan.

There she is right on cue.

" Get out of my way, little bitch," Jenna hissed at him, trying to shove him away.

" Yeah, yeah, whatever," Rich said, making his way past the person who had been ruining most of his experience in the loop. 

Jenna Rolan was on his hate list at the moment. Actually, everyone in Jake's new friend group was. Jake was always playing the victim now, Chloe always hurt some part of him everyday, Brooke laughed at him more every loop, Christine was at his throat whenever Rich spoke to someone new, Jenna spread nasty rumors about him in some loops. Now Jeremy and Michael? They were...fine, Rich guessed. But Jeremy had punched him at least fifty times throughout the loops, and Michael watched, watching evil things happen doesn't exactly make you a good person either.

Now Rich wasn't saying he was a good person either with these loops, maybe he was three years ago, before any of the loops started. But Rich wanting to explore new options, that got Rich to hurt people. And that never was a good feeling. 

So Rich now just tried his best not to hurt anyone or get too curious on what might happen if he did something differently. Even if it was good, sometimes he would manage to get hurt.

Rich's classes went fast that loop, and Rich knew all the answers to his Physics exam, finally. But then it was the dreaded period Rich had hated the most throughout all the loops. 

Lunch time. 

Now Rich could sit at Jeremy and Michael's lunch table since both of them moved to Jake's table. But first he would have to get through whatever spilled on him that afternoon. Maybe it would be a drink this time? They weren't that bad.

That's when Rich felt something wet go all over his shirt. It _was_ a drink, but it was a slushie this time. Michael spilled something on him today. Of course though, Rich didn't bother looking up, he just made his way to his lunch table where he sat with Remy. Today, Rich had gotten just a slice of school pizza. That was it. 

Rich mostly went on his phone throughout the period, texting Adrian to not go back to his dorm room and just get a coffee at Starbucks, he had to do this every single loop, he had to keep Adrian safe. 

Rich put his phone down after the text went through, before he drummed his fingers against the lunch table. Each day, despite repeating, was still unpredictable. 

He liked knowing what would happen next, he didn't like guessing what would happen. The thought of something terrible happening out of nowhere? Rich hated that feeling, that feeling would devour his mind within seconds, making Rich think about it for hours on end. 

The lunch period seemed to start coming to an end, Rich knew that the swarm of students would cause him to ram right into Jeremy, so he left five minutes before the period came to a close. 

School hallways were never quiet. Yet while Rich went to his class that was across the school, it remained quiet, as if someone talked, they would be killed on the spot. The teachers didn't seem to notice Rich was walking through the hallways, despite him supposed to be in lunch, that was good enough for him. 

Out of nowhere, there stood the demon of high school. Her flushing long hazelnut hair, highlighted with a light colored caramel. Her nails, which were painted their usual bright rosy color, it showed her dominance throughout the school. One thing was off about how she usually looked.

Chloe had a neon pink crop top, with her purple glitter jacket. That was different. And she was wearing jeans. Chloe had always worn for every single loop, a black crop top with stripes of the colors red, blue, orange, pink, yellow, and purple. Then on top of that was her purple glitter jacket. And then a skirt that went way above dress code limits. But the teachers didn't say anything. The teachers didn't care about how someone like Chloe Valentine dressed.

But why was she here? Why was she dressed differently? Rich never did anything toward her in today's loop. And even so, he never even talks to her, let alone see her before school began. 

" Hey, _dirtbag, _caught you getting out of lunch early. How come?" Chloe Valentine questioned, her tone ripped through the air. Now _that _was strange, Chloe wouldn't walk up to someone like him, in public. 

" My class is across the school, that's why I left lunch early. Why would it make a difference for you?" Rich simply said, not trying to do anything that could cause a punch, or worse, a rumor to spread, about him. 

" You never, I mean, never left lunch early before. You only did it in this, sorry, _on _this day." Chloe pushed Rich closer to the wall, by simply taking a step closer. Rich did a sharp exhale, and shut his eyes tightly, hoping Chloe would just leave him alone for once.

" Look, maybe I just wanted to leave early since Jenna Rolan kept glaring at me, okay?" Rich knew his voice must have gone an octave higher during his explanation. Although it was half true, Rich also wanted to leave because Jenna Rolan glared at him during lunch.

Chloe took a step back from Rich, letting his shoulders drop. " Whatever pipsqueak, now do me and the rest of the school a favor, and keep your mouth shut as you usually do." And just as quick as the queen came, she left, going back to lunch for some strange reason (despite it being over by now). 

Rich decided he would avoid his usual run ins with the rest of Jake's lunch table, by simply leaving five minutes earlier.

This also went with the run-in with Jake Dillinger. Despite everything, Rich couldn't get over his crush on Jake. Actually, it got worse. Rich thought he actually _loved _Jake Dillinger now. That this turned into something more than a school boy crush. But Rich couldn't do anything now. If he tried to become friends with Jake, all of it would be gone by the next loop. 

So the classes went on, going from Biology, to finally his last class of the day before he could sit back, relax, and wait for the sweet release of death. And then Rich would have to go through this day again.

Rich was still mad at himself for staying up all night before the loop started. Then he wouldn't be so tired everyday. 

So, Rich's teacher, Señora Frances, was going over cognates again as a review. Rich placed his eyes onto Jake Dillinger, who, remember, sat right next to him. In fact, Rich lost control of the time, and it was now five minutes before class would end.

Rich's hand shot right into the air. " Señora Frances? Puedo ir al baño, por favor?"

Luckily, Señora Frances allowed Rich to leave the classroom, but he wasn't very sneaky about leaving.

Rich just shoved everything under his oversized hoodie, and left the class, leaving his desk empty.

Yeah.

That.

That wasn't very smart.

At least Rich was finally out of school, hopefully he wouldn't bump it anyone else on his way out.

Yeah, Rich was wrong. 

* * *

On Rich's way out of school, he wasn't exactly, watching where he was going. So that's how he walked right into the local science nerd and drug dealer, Dustin Kropp. Maybe drug dealer wasn't the right word.

Dustin Kropp just _gave_ drugs to people if they wanted it, and didn't really care if they said no to it.

Dustin Kropp was still one of the most unpopular, but nerdy, kids in the school. Rich liked him for that.

" I swear to god, if this is _another_ person asking me to be on the Academic Decathlon team, A'ight?" 

" I didn't mean to run into you! Don't tell Christine I was in your sight!" Rich said, frantically throwing his hands around. 

Dustin Kropp had raised an eyebrow at that. " Why would I tell my cousin, who is now popular somehow, anything? She's sitting at Jake's table now. And apparently, she's dating _Jeremy Heere_ now. When did that happen?" 

Christine's been asking Jeremy out and dating him for the past 369 loops. So, for Rich, they've been dating for more than a year. It's pretty interesting how _that_ happened.

" Yeah, uh, she isn't really acting like herself, right?" Rich added on. Dustin's eyes met Rich's, they were filled with some type of grief.

" She told me before lunch that I could go sit with my other friends. I don't actually, have any friends, well does Madeline count? We're family friends, of course," Dustin said, who ruffled his sleeves up. 

Rich nervously laughed, which Dustin gave another confused look from that. " What _is _your name anyway? I've seen you around but never actually talked to you. You're in my Biology class I think."

" Oh, well, my name is Richard Goranski? But, I go by Rich, and my friends call me Richie! If I had any friends, that is." Rich introduced himself, doing a small bow as he did so. Dustin laughed at Rich when he did the bow. But. 

It was a good laugh. 

" Dude! I'm not like, Chloe Valentine or anything!" Dustin hurled over with laughter spreading all over. His laugh sounded like dishes crashing onto the ground, yet, Rich still liked that laugh. 

" It is still a pleasure to meet you. Since I cheat off of you in science class."

" Eh, understandable."

Dustin cleared his throat and stuck out his hand. " You probably don't know my name, my name's Dustin Kropp. Cousin of Christine Canigula." Dustin did a fake flip with his short leather black hair. 

Rich took it without hesitation this time. " Don't worry, I know. Not in a creepy way, of course. We went to that camp when we were around nine? Weird that I remember, I know. But, you were that kid who vomited all over our camp instructor. That's why."

Dishes crashed all over again. " You remember _that__?_ Mad respect dude. Mad respect." 

Rich grinned brightly, he was actually talking to somebody. Somebody Rich actually wanted to talk with for awhile. Dustin was unpopular, like him. But, still approachable. Rich liked that about him.

The two had continued to talk, they were actually getting along, they were in symbiosis. 

Dustin offered to help Rich with science if he wanted to. And Rich offered to help Dustin with Spanish class. Rich wanted this friendship to last. The loop always gets in the way. Rich could never have someone to look forward to. Because the loop repeats over and over again. Forever being alone in these loops. 

Rich would most likely never get out. He would live thousands of years maybe. Reliving the same day over and over. As a sweaty teenager with no friends. And in the winter of all seasons.

* * *

The time was now 6:09. Rich asked Dustin if he could go over to his house. Dustin said he could. Rich planned to do something that could risk Dustin getting hurt. Even if Rich only talked with Dustin once, he wanted to get to know Dustin better. So there was only one solution.

Once Rich had arrived at the house, he recognized it already. 

That. 

That was Christine Canigula's house. 

Does Dustin live here? He must have. Rich tucked his hair behind his ear, adjusted his glasses, and knocked on the door. Rich noticed that there was two cars that just, didn't fit with the rest. 

" Richard?" 

Christine. Christine opened the door. There she was, wearing her hair in a ponytail, while having Jeremy's blue cardigan, and under that was her bright green dress with a flower. 

" I came here to see Dustin. I have something to tell him, and, yeah." Rich shrugged, giving an awkward smile toward Christine. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she crossed her arms.

" I don't want you to talk with him. Dustin's fragile. And you're a jerk." Christine's eyes didn't seem to meet Rich's as she talked. And her hands kept picking at the lint that had caught onto that blue cardigan. 

" Look, we talked to each other and I, well, I kinda just, well, want to tell him something super important. I _need_ him to hear what I have to say." Rich was lisped like crazy. He knew he sounded desperate, but he just needed a friend to deal with everything. He was tired of going through everything alone. Rich didn't want to deal with having no friends anymore.

" Chrissy? Is that Rich?" A voice came from the staircase. Rich always wanted stairs. His house was one of the only homes in Middleborough that was just one story. 

But it was Dustin. Rich had never been happier to hear another voice that wasn't his or his brother's.

Dustin came from upstairs, his feet were heard, and his eyes met with Rich's. " Christine, I, uh, he wanted to talk to me about, a project?" 

Christine's eyes changed completely. " You're not supposed to have a project today!" Christine swished around, and stared right at Dustin, who hummed. 

" Mr Stevens told us about it out of nowhere in Bio? And also Rich wanted to tell me something important?" Dustin laughed awkwardly, and took his cap off, biting his lip. 

" No no no, Mr Stevens never gives out a project today!" Christine seemed to be freaking out, she pulled her hair a bit, before staring back at Rich. Rich was now biting his hoodie strings, waiting to come inside now.

Christine counted down from ten to one, taking deep breaths. " I'm gonna go talk with my friends, alright?" 

Dustin rolled his eyes, and eyed Christine down. " You mean your brand new friends you made out of nowhere? You mean those popular kids? _Those _friends?" Christine didn't say a thing, and pushed past Dustin to her room. 

So Jake Dillinger was here. So was Chloe Valentine, along with Jenna Rolan, Brooke Lohst, Michael Mell, and Jeremy Heere. This was just perfect. Everyone Rich hated was in the same house as him. 

Dustin went down toward Rich, patting Rich's back. " Sorry 'bout her. She wasn't like this yesterday? She was fine actually. Singing her nerdy theatre songs and teasing me. Normal cousin stuff."

Oh right. Dustin still remembered December 19th as clear as day. Rich barely remembered anything from December 19th. Only thing he remembered was his dad once he got home. His dad was complete blackout drunk. Rich remembered that he cried. So then he had to stay up until 3:30AM.

" It's alright. Let's just head to your room, alright?" Rich gestured toward the stairs, Dustin nodded at him, and the two headed up to Dustin's room. 

Dustin's room had various posters spread around the wall. Some of them were of bands like Twenty One Pilots, and some of the posters were from artists from Instagram. And then there was lava lamps. Tons of them. Oh, and you can't forget that literally everything was on the floor. Literally everything. From books to all of Dustin's laundry it looked. 

" Welcome to my room! It used to be Mr Canigula's office, but after I had to move in, he let it become my room. They said I could move in the basement if I get good grades this semester. So, hopefully I can move in during Winter Break," Dustin threw his hands right in the air as he collapsed onto his bed. Rich liked his room too. It made him feel.

Home.

Maybe after a few minutes of small talk, Dustin brought up the question he wanted the answer to.

" So, what'd you wanna tell me?" 

Rich took a deep breath, and looked into Dustin's eyes.

" Dustin, we've been stuck in an infinite time loop for three years now."


	2. Chapter Two: Jake

You could say Jake was confused when it was December 20th once again. Actually, he thought it was real weird. The same events from the day before happened. Except, Jake didn't seem to be the only one who was trapped in a supposed loop.

Jake couldn't think about what life could have been like if he was the only one trapped in a loop. Imagine having to go through by himself, that would suck big time. 

Jake did think at one point that he would be alone in that loop, until around the 19th loop Brooke said something that made everyone stare at her.

* * *

The lunch table was silent that evening on the 19th loop. Even Chloe wasn't talking, she just picked at her food, staring at the clock. Brooke's perfume smelled different from the loop before, it scented with a strong cherry. She gobbled up her food like she would die at any second. Jenna's space buns seemed to be falling apart, and she frantically texted on her phone. Jake's eyes went to two different tables.

The table near the back only consisted of the two losers who got constantly bullied everyday. Jake knew who both of them were from hearing his swimming team mock them. Jeremy Heere seemed to be in panic mode, gasping for breath as his best friend, Michael Mell, patted his back and was telling him reassuring words that Jake couldn't quite hear. And for the other table? The local theater kid lover, Christine Canigula, couldn't even sit down, she was up and using hand movements. Her cousin, Jake didn't know his name, was saying something along the lines of, ' Take a chill pill.'. 

Brooke took a look around too, and she got up from the table. " Hey Jake, we got some people to add to the table. Mind coming with me?" Brooke asked, leaning toward Jake. 

" New people?" Jake questioned, Brooke gave him the stank eye, with a look of, 'I'll rip your face off if you don't come.' Jake quickly nodded along to Brooke, and the two went to Christine Canigula's table.

" I'm not lying! I swear! We've already done this! You guys have to believe me! Please?" Christine was on the edge of her limits, Jake assumed, and her attention turned onto Brooke and himself. 

" You two shouldn't be here. That never happened before. You're supposed to be at your own table," Christine said, staring at them both with teary eyes. Brooke patted her shoulder and gestured her to join them. 

" We know. And we believe you. Come on now, we have to get two other people." Brooke handled this well, and Jake liked that about her. But, that must mean one thing. Maybe Brooke was in the loop with him too? And Christine. Christine must be trapped too.

The three of them headed toward the table way in the back, toward the two boys who were known as the school geeks and losers. Jake didn't really like that term anymore. Loser. It made him feel queasy inside. 

" Micha, I just, I don't know if I can keep up with anything anymore. Oh god, are we gonna be in this forever? I don't wanna do this forever! I don't wanna deal with some kid shoving me at a locker every time I leave lunch!" Jeremy's voice continued to change tones and octaves, the teen sure was dealing with something. Brooke nudged me over to the two, basically telling me with her face to talk. 

" Uh, hello? Jeremy and Michael, right?" Jake plastered a small smile on his face to keep them from running away.

Michael's eyebrow raised and he stared into Jake's eyes. " The hot jock shouldn't be here now. Doesn't he appear at 12:19 exact?" Michael pulled Jeremy a bit closer to him, and hissed at Brooke. But Jeremy was busy, he stared into Christine's eyes and she stared back. The two seemed to connect in just a glance of an eye. Like they were two puzzle pieces, who just needed to find each other. Interesting. 

" Look, we need you two to come with us to our lunch table. It's important," Jake said, showing a serious tone in his voice. Didn't expect that. 

" Lunch with _Christine?_ " Jeremy's voice lit up with wonder. 

" Yeah, yeah, whatever. But if you dare hurt Jeremy, I'll crush you up, _eat _ you, and spit you out into the ground," Michael threatened, before he hissed towards them again. 

Why'd this dude act like a cat toward them?

So now with the three additions to their group of four, which added up to seven people in total. Jeremy sat down to the left of Jake, Michael went to take the seat next to Jeremy's, but then Christine sat down there. Of course, she didn't seem to realize it. But she glanced up at Michael and saw his face.

" My apologies, here, have it." Christine got up to move, but Michael shook his head.

" You can sit next to Jer, I'll just," Michael looked around the table and saw only two other open seats were either next to Chloe or Jenna. " Sit next to Jenna." Michael moved to the seat next to Jenna in a heartbeat. Jenna only spared a glance, before looking at the various patches on Michael's hoodie.

" Is that a Weezer patch?" Jenna asked, pointing at a patch under a Filipino flag. This time Michael's eyes lit up. 

" You know Weezer? Rad dude!" Michael did a fist bump toward Jenna, which Jenna gladly accepted. Those two seemed to be marked with 'let's be best friends right now.'

Brooke was desperately trying to get everyone's attention, but Christine and Jeremy were busy talking about who knows what, and Michael and Jenna talked loudly about Weezer's albums. Chloe and Jake gave each other looks, and attempted to tell everyone to quiet down. 

Brooke shut everyone up with just one sentence. " Everyone here's been trapped in a loop that's been happening for nineteen days now." Brooke ended her statement with a smack of her lips, and sat down in her chair, crossing her arms. 

A silence stabbed through the air of the table, and everybody seemed to be affected by it, and everyone stared at Brooke. Brooke's face matched her rosy red lipstick, and she stammered out apologies. " Oh god, I sound like a crazy person, I should have shut my mouth, oh god I'm sorry, heh, that was just a joke of course! A silly small joke I had made. Sorry again." 

" Brooke, you're right. At least for me." Jenna cut Brooke off, giving her a small smile. " You see, well, I don't know if this has been happening with you, but at around maybe 10:40 for me, I always seem to get killed in some way. I try to run away, and it never works." Jenna slumped in her chair, but Brooke looked a bit happy that one person had been experiencing it too.

Michael cleared his throat, which had all the attention thrown on him. " Same with me and Jeremy, you see, he was staying over at my place? And at around 10:30, Jeremy went to the bathroom. I heard him scream, and well, he was dead. Next thing I knew, at 10:50, I called the cops and was freaking the hell out, and then I sort of just, was killed by some entity." Michael rubbed his sleeves, he obviously didn't have fond memories of any of the previous night loops.

Jake expected Chloe to laugh and call them all loonies, but she didn't. Instead, Chloe spoke up. " That's actually been happening to me too. I was up at 10:20, reading some articles online, yes I enjoy reading, anyway, then out of nowhere I saw this shadow in the corner of my room. Woke up and it was December 20th again. I begged my parents to let me stay home from school since I was so freaked, but they made me go anyway." 

Chloe sighed, and put her head against the table. " I just want it to be December 21st already, you know?"

" If I could add on to Michael's story?" Jeremy asked, and everyone gave him a nod. " Well, as you know, me and Michael were playing some Apocalypse of the Damned, and my hands were getting sweaty, so I asked to go to the bathroom. When I got in, I noticed that there was something in the mirror, and then it just...jumped out. I remember my throat hurting, and then I woke up in bed, the date being December 20th. Me and Michael shared the same story since we skipped our first period together to talk." 

" You saw this thing first hand?" Jenna asked, who typed on her Notes app. Jeremy went in detail about how it looked, that it showed of this aura, and it was a mix of white and black. And it looked like a goo monster. It sounded exactly how Jake saw it, but he chose not to say anything about seeing it too.

" What's your story Christine? How was the first death for you?" Brooke asked, as if this was sharing about a first kiss. 

Christine took a deep breath, and stared at the clock as she talked. " I was in my room getting ready to go to sleep at 10:15, when I heard my younger twin siblings cry, I went over to calm them down, since Dustin said he wasn't helping anyone anymore after we got in a fight, and then I felt like something just grabbed my heart. And I fell. And then I opened my eyes to see that I was in my bed, the date saying it was December 20th." Jake was about to share his story but apparently Christine had more to say. " Dustin didn't even remember anything that next morning. Nobody remembered anything. That's when I lost it and got scared for my life. "

Jake thought Christine was done now, and he was right, everyone turned their attention at Jake Dillinger, the kid everyone looked up to. They all thought he probably tried to fight if off. He didn't.

" Oh, my story? Well, it was 10:59? About to turn 11PM, when I heard something in the basement." Incorrect. Jake heard something from his closet. And ran out the room. " I grabbed a baseball bat." Debating Trophy. " And I attempted to fight what I couldn't see." Another false fact. Jake screamed when he saw the entity, and ran for his life, but he got tripped over. And dragged in the basement. While he screamed for his life. " But then in the end I just woke up in bed as the rest of you." Lies. Why was Jake lying to them? 

Chloe suggested something, " How about we all eat together? Sure it'll be weird for everyone around us, but I'm sure it'll be fine." Everyone agreed to that suggestion. 

Jake remembered that kid from the past loops, the one who always yelled at him every time school came to an end. He didn't know his name. But, that kid's been acting off too, maybe...just maybe he was- " Do you think that kid with the oversized hoodies and glasses is part of the loop too?" Jake asked.

Everyone laughed.

" Richard Goranski? He's such a dick, probably called Dick by his parents. Because he is one," Chloe scoffed. " Did you know he walked into me at least twenty six times? He's such a little pervert."

" Chloe, if I recall, it was only twenty times," Jenna said, not looking away from her phone. 

" Same thing! He probably cried when I defended myself in the past eighteen loops. Because Dick is a pervert, of course."

Jenna Rolan leaned into the table, " Did you know Dick Goranski's mom _died_ when he was only eight years old? I heard he lit her on fire." Not cool Jenna. But Jake couldn't say anything. Because he was Jake Dillinger.

" That can't be true. Didn't his mom die from that McDonalds robbery?" Brooke whispered, making sure nobody else heard their gossip. Chloe rolled her eyes. 

" Both of those are wrong. Pretty sure his father killed her." Chloe said this as she put on more lipstick, as if it was nothing. Jake didn't like where this conversation was going. He hated it actually. Why were his friends doing this? 

Jake coughed loud enough to make everyone stop talking. " Here, here, to time loop buddies?"

" Time loop buddies."

* * *

Loop 1095.

That's how many loops the seven of them had been trapped. That's how many times the seven have been murdered. That's how many times they've gone through their school period. 

And all of them hated it.

Christine liked when her schedule worked the way it did, when something off schedule happened, she freaked out. Once she was called something else during attendance in Loop 537, she skipped the rest of school that day. But usually, Christine's her normal, cheerful, chirpy self. She sang during lunch and when they would hang out at each other's homes.

Friendships changed as well. And relationships. 

Jeremy and Michael used to be the best of friends, and now it seemed as if Michael and Jenna's friendship could counter that. Jenna and Michael usually died at each other's houses more than Jeremy and Michael do. But despite that, Jeremy and Michael still hung out a lot. 

Now Jeremy and Christine, Jake saw it coming once they met eyes with each other on Loop 18. So did Michael. About 365 loops ago, Christine asked Jeremy out with performance art at the bowling alley. Jeremy had gladly accepted. Now they get kicked out of the bowling alley every single loop. 

Chloe and Jeremy's friendship was unexpected, they bonded over their love of the book, Frankenstein. Jeremy and Chloe didn't hang out as much as Jenna and Michael did, but it was still pretty often. 

Sometimes the seven of them would forget they were in loop, later to get questioned by their friends why they acted so differently from the day before. Because everyone else still remembered the day before clear as crystals. 

Oh but they all hated one particular teenage boy. The one with oversized glasses and hoodies. They all hated Richard Goranski. 

It was strange how a small five foot tall boy could become such a nuisance to everyone in the group. And Jake found it weird how Richard always changed from the loop before. But they all agreed only the seven of them were part of the loop. And that was that.

But the small boy always brought curiosity into Jake's mind. With Richard's freckles that looked as if they were splattered across his face with a paintbrush. His voice whenever the event after school occurred, how broken he sounded when he yelled. Or his expression when somebody dropped food on his oversized hoodie with the words Dungeons and Dragons written on the front, with a 20 sided die. Maybe when the male next to him would raise his hand to answer a question, only to answer it wrong on most occasions, and he would try and hide his now cherry red face with his moppy brown hair. 

Something about Richard Goranski made Jake Dillinger feel like a bird, who could spread his wings and feel free. Maybe it didn't make sense. But it did for Jake. He felt like a bird when he announced who he was in seventh grade to the school. Maybe some people didn't exactly like that. But Jake remembered how Chloe threatened to punch them when someone told Jake a certain question.

The bell rang, letting everyone leave for lunch, and ignored the teachers frantic 'I dismiss you not the bell' shrieks. Jake's favorite period was lunch actually, there he could show that he was indeed in a loop, and had changed from how he was 1095 loops ago. 

Their entire group always entered the lunch line together, except for Michael, who got permission from the school to leave class early by five minutes, allowing him to go to Seven Eleven and Wawa. Michael always said Seven Eleven has superior slushees, so he had to go from Seven Eleven to Wawa every loop. 

Today Michael left ten minutes earlier, which resulted in something he wasn't supposed to do in the loop. As the six teenagers had walked out the line, their eyes saw Michael trip over the air, and his drink fall right onto Richard Goranski's hoodie. Richard looked like he wanted to die on the spot. His face looked as red as it looked in Spanish class, and some of the drink had gotten on his glasses.

Richard didn't bother to look at Michael, or the snickering of his peers, he just walked to the back of the lunchroom, to Jeremy and Michael's old table. Jake couldn't help feeling bad for Richard.

The others didn't quite feel the same. 

" Pft! Michael! That was a good one! He didn't even _look _up at you this time," Chloe cackled, she sounded like those hyenas from The Lion King. Michael looked just as embarrassed as Richard had, staring at the spot Richard stood.

" I didn't mean to drop it on him! I just, wanted to get to lunch earlier this loop," Michael tried to explain himself. Nobody believed him. Except at least Jake and Jenna.

Now with Michael, the seven of them walked to their usual table in the front east, all of them talked about the various things that happened during the day, one thing stuck out with all of them though.

" I think it's just, well, weird how Dick is starting to care less and less about our interactions." Jenna said, as she was playing cards with Michael beside her. 

" I didn't see Rich for our daily interaction today, it seemed he managed to slink off." Chloe added on, while she tried to style Jeremy's jungle of wild hair. 

Michael put even more info on the table. " Richard ran away when he saw me, I don't know where, but, he did." Brooke squinted at Michael, and she picked at her nails. 

" I laughed at Dick more than usual today, he always makes a cheesy pick-up line, so, I laugh." Brooke shrugged, before digging into her hot lunch. Chloe's eyes looked ready to kill when Brooke mentioned it.

" You shouldn't encourage his jokes, Brooke. You know what he's done to me," Chloe hissed at her best friend. Brooke muttered something under her breath before she took another bite out of her lunch. 

Jake noticed after maybe twenty five minutes into lunch, Richard had gotten up from his table, and left the lunchroom. Chloe and Jake's eyes met when this happened, both having seen it.

" I'll go to him-" Jake had started, but Chloe already got up from her seat, and walked after Richard, keeping her footsteps quiet. Jake didn't want Richard to be alone with Chloe of all people, Chloe wasn't exactly the nicest person on the planet. Far from it actually. In the summer of Freshman year, Jake remembered when they got together. Because Jake thought Chloe would be the only person who could ever understand the true Jake Dillinger.

The two of them broke up after one last fight in January of last year. The two were not soulmates as they thought. 

So what did Jake do when Chloe left? Jake followed her of course. He had to know what she was up to. 

Jake made sure to keep himself quiet, and overheard that a strident voice, that was Chloe's voice alright. 

" Hey, _dirtbag, _caught you getting out of lunch early. How come?" 

A quieter, wobbly voice replied. " " My class is across the school, that's why I left lunch early. Why would it make a difference for you?" 

That was Richard. And boy, did he sound like an angel. Not in a weird way of course, Jake just thought Richard's voice was nice to listen to. It was like honey. Sweet and fruity. 

" You never, I mean, never left lunch early before. You only did it in this, sorry, _on _this day." Chloe's voice tore through the hall, and Jake swore he heard Richard let out an 'eek'. Chloe made Richard get closer to the wall, his smaller than normal body wobbled some more, and he stared at Chloe. Richard's eyes magnified through his glasses, before he shut them both.

" Look, maybe I just wanted to leave early since Jenna Rolan kept glaring at me, okay?" RIchard's voice managed to go an even higher octave than it already was. Chloe bared her claws at him one more time, which caused him to jolt.

" Whatever pipsqueak, now do me and the rest of the school a favor, and keep your mouth shut as you usually do." Chloe laughed at Richard as she turned the hallway. Toward Jake. Jake wasn't able to give another glance at Richard, since he ran for his life back to his lunch table before Chloe had even seen him.

Jake plopped down in his seat and stared at everyone in the eyes, he let out a nervous smile and giggled. Michael didn't look up from his 3DS and already said something. " Where'd you go? Did you make out with Chloe?"

" What? No! Chloe and I are exes and nothing more!" Jake quickly stated, leaving the conversation there. Chloe soon enough came back around a minute after Jake, and the seven continued to talk as the lunch period started coming to a close.

Jeremy somehow fell asleep on Christine's shoulder, Christine explained to everyone how Jeremy tried to run away from the entity the previous night and almost made it past eleven. But at 10:50, he blacked out in Wawa. 

And then Michael had to say something that changed their perspectives. " What if in one loop we'll die and...we'll just stay dead. Like that. And we won't even realize it." 

Jenna almost dropped her 3DS and elbowed Michael in the face. " We promised not to _share_ this at the lunch table! We were _high__!_ " Jenna whispered quite loudly.

" It was Jenna's high thought." 

" **Michael!**" 

Brooke looked as if she might cry. " But I don't wanna die! There's this girl I really like and I wanna talk to her! I can't do that if I'm dead!" 

" I've only been in love three times. And one of them was Damian from Mean Girls."

" That's not important, Michael."

" Is too."

" Is _not!_ " 

Michael and Jenna continued to go back and forth while the others talked.

" Why'd we have to be stuck in this damn loop? Maybe someone can help us?" Chloe said, scratching at her nails now.

" Oh, uh, Christine! How about your cousin, what's his name," Jake snapped his fingers. How could he not remember his friend's cousin's name? Darrel? Dylan? Mustin? " Dustin! That's the name!"

Christine stroked Jeremy's hair, and used her other hand to talk. " Dustin probably doesn't like me at this moment. We always get in a fight near the end of every loop. He doesn't know much about physics either. Just Biology."

Brooke stared at the clock, her eyes fixed on the hands which moved. " Maybe it has something to do with time and space? I'm not exactly sure, but, it seems reasonable. I played this game called-"

" We don't care about some game, Brooke. This is very real, and we could actually _die _from some weird-ass entity that caused this," Chloe said, which made Brooke stay quiet. That wasn't cool, Chloe. But jake couldn't say that out loud, of course.

" Dustin _is _a science nerd though, so maybe I could convince him to help while he's high. It'll have to be quick though, we're in a loop after all." Christine stated, and her eyes moved to the clock. " Lunch is over, we should go now."

With that, everyone in the group went to their separate classes, and the time seemed to move by quickly. And then, it was Spanish class. 

Jake stared at Richard, he didn't know exactly why, but he sure as hell wasn't paying attention to the cognates review. Richard's hair looked like he got out of bed, and didn't bother to fix it. 

And Richard's eyes. Sure, they were brown, but, his eyes were still nice to look at either way. Who care's about eye color? Chloe's eyes were green and brown, so there's that. And Jeremy sure as hell had heterochromia, two different colored eyes. brown and blue, he always called it cursed but Jake personally found it cool.

Wait, Richard left class early? And Jake didn't notice? That was new. 

Why did Richard leave? Nobody interacted with him in the loop today except Michael and Chloe.

...

_Wait_.

* * *

Jake knew he should have believed right from the start that Richard was also part of the time loop. It just _made _sense. 

But Jake didn't tell any of his friends about his discovery, they would probably panic, now that they realized Richard remembered everything they did to him during the loops. 

There was the loop period where Jenna continued to spread a nasty rumor about him, Jake didn't tell Jenna to stop either. But Richard yelled at Christine and called her a 'bitch'. So both Jenna and Richard were wrong either way.

Jake wasn't _actually_ listening to Michael and Jenna's rambling about Jake's poor taste in music. As if their taste was better. 80s and 90s music with a hint of soul music? Maybe the soul music was alright, but the others were not great in Jake's book. What kind of song is named _Crab__? _ Worst music title ever. 

" Jake, Funk is the worst genre of music. Period." 

" Fits his personality though."

" True that."

Jake growled and jerked the car to the side, which made Jenna and Michael fall. " Whoops, wear your seatbelts. And I can't hear you over _The Soul Machine, _bitches!" Jake moved the volume knob higher to spite the two of them. 

Both of them seemed to be planning something in the backseat now. Frightening. 

By the time Jake actually got into Christine's driveway, Jenna and Michael won the Most Chaotic Duo Award by putting Weezer over Jake's Funk Playlist. How he hated them at that moment.

Jake saw that the Brooke's car was in Christine's driveway, empty, which meant Chloe, Brooke, and Jeremy were already inside. 

It might seem mean, but Jake hated watching Christine and Jeremy be all over each other, they gushed and kissed, and had an ideal relationship. Jake liked Christine too for about 30 loops, but gave up when Jeremy came up and practice flirted with him. And then Jeremy turned beet red. And apologized over sixteen times, after he explained he was pretending Jake was Christine.

Jeremy really was a huge hopeless romantic mess. 

Jenna and Michael both walked inside, since Christine left the door open for them, Jake was staring at Christine's cousin, Dustin Kropp. Dustin was actually in the same grade as them, being born on December 31st made him stuck a year behind. 

Dustin glanced up at Jake and gave him the finger. 

...

How polite of him.

So Jake made his way upstairs, already knowing the house by heart, he heard voices from Christine's room.

" I'm just _saying!_ Jake is feeling pity for Dick Goranski! Why would Jake like some little _pervert? "  
_

" Chloe!" 

" What? It's true! He gave some lame excuse about leaving lunch early."

" He left lunch early?"

" Not important, Christine. He, well, Jake told him to leave lunch five minutes early or else."

Liar, liar, Chloe. That never happened.

But Christine let out a sigh of relief. " Thank god, that would have gotten me all rattled up if he left for _no _reason!" 

Jake felt like he had to hear more about what they said. Did they really talk like this when he wasn't around? Why? Why would they act like this? Jake just tried to be reasonable about things now.

" You guys shouldn't say these things just because Jake isn't here."

" Agreed."

Thank you, Jeremy and Michael.

" But if he _was _here he would tell us all to be quiet about it. He always does these things. All Dick remembers is yesterday and this loop's events. We could shove him to the ground and hit him, and he wouldn't remember."

Jake was gonna walk in now.

He opened the door and gave everyone one of the most fakest smiles he created. But he knew they all could tell he was pissed now. " Oh hello, everyone. I just went to...do something," Jake lied, of course, but he couldn't risk losing his friends trust.

Jenna probably knew he lied though, Jenna could read anyone like a book.

Jake sat down on the carpet, watching Jenna paint Michael's nails, they were the colors yellow, blue, and red (yes in that order).

" My biological father is from Ecuador. I don't remember much about him. Except that he's dead," Michael explained, clearly not fazed by the death of his father he didn't know. Or, well, Michael could just be lying. 

" Least you have two moms now. That's cool, right?" Brooke asked, taking a sip out of her La Croix. Michael nodded vividly, his voice showed how he felt. Bright orange.

" Oh hells yes! My moms will adopt everyone in this room if they have to!" Michael grinned at them all.

" Nah fam, I'm good," was all Christine said, stroking Jeremy's hair again. Jeremy let out a small laugh, damn, they were fluff definition. 

" Oh, hell yes please." Jake smiled back at Michael, everyone in the room knew about Jake's parents after the 700th loop. 

" Welcome to the family, Jake Mell. My name is Michael, how may I help you?"

The seven of them continued to joke around, they played games like Truth or Dare, which wasn't fun for Jake who held many secrets. 

_Ding Dong_.

" Oop! Pizza's here! I'll get it!" Christine exclaimed, actually exclaimed, and she headed downstairs while the rest talked.

But then they heard Christine's shrilled voice. " No no no, Mr Stevens never gives out a project today!"

Oh no.

Someone came over. And it wasn't the pizza man.

A few seconds later, Christine slammed open the door, before she closed it again, and sat down next to Jeremy. " Guess who's here? It's Dick Goranski. Woo!" Everyone stared at Christine, Chloe let out an 'ew'.

" Why is _he _here?"

" Apparently, Mr Stevens assigned them a project. But, that can't be true. We've been in this loop for a whole three years, and Mr Stevens never even gave out homework!" Christine rapidly spoke, and she groaned. 

Jake already knew why Richard was here.

" I hate that little skank. I say we throw him outside."

Why did Chloe have to hate Richard so much? All he did was walk into her.

" He's already in Dustin's room, probably smoking."

Well, that's probably true.

" Maybe they're, like, secret lovers. Does Dustin leave the house a lot?"

Jake's heart almost stopped.

" Well, from what I remember I think he did-"

" That can't be true!" Jake shouted frantically. All eyes went on him. 

Jake felt his heart go from almost stopping to beating at a quick speed. His face was a tomato now apparently. God, help him.

" Jake? You alright there?" Michael asked, taking a good look at him. Michael eyes seemed concerned, and his eyebrows raised. " Richard mean something important?"

" It's...nothing," Jake sighed, rubbing hands hands against his face. Didn't seem like anybody believed him.

" Jake, do _you _like Dick Goranski?" Jenna asked. Jake stared at all of them. Why now? God must hate Jake.

" Like him? _No! _It's just, I found something about him." Jake said, and realized what he did. Shit.

Brooke tilted her head in curiosity. " Well? What is it?" 

Jake took another deep breath, and looked at everyone in the group.

Here goes everything.

" Well, there's another person in the loop. And it's Richard Goranski."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes Chapter 2!
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed this from Jake's POV!
> 
> Thanks for reading and remember to drop a Kudos!


	3. Chapter Three: Rich

Dustin stared blankly at Rich, and did an anxious laugh. " What?" Dustin's eyes told everything he was feeling. Confusion. Just bland, and utterly complete confusion. 

" We have all been trapped in a time loop, for three years now. 1095 days. And I will be murdered at maybe around 10:58PM tonight. And then I will wake up in the morning as if nothing happened," Rich repeated, not even a touch of emotion dropped in his tone. Dustin's eyes flickered with a certain light, and his ears actually moved. Rich knew Dustin had heard this before. And it was only coming back to him now.

This didn't make sense. Any other time Rich had told someone about the loop, they would call him crazy, and forget everything the next loop. But Dustin? Dustin processed everything Rich said, and took it into thought. His fingers scratched at the joint he smoked, Dustin's strawberry tinted eyes glanced at the clock, before they came back into focus on Rich (yes Dustin was already smoking when Rich came).

" Are you high?" Dustin asked, the only three words that sprouted out of his lips after a whole five minutes. He had to be kidding himself. _That _was all Dustin Kropp had to say when Rich revealed something that could change everything Dustin had ever known? What a waste of information. He should just say he was high.

Rich's mind told him otherwise. " No, we've been trapped in this timeloop. And I'm starting to lose it with no one to talk to about it. With everyone just, pretending the day never happened before. So, I told you. I figured, hey, maybe the kid who comes to school high and actually knows a hella lot about physics and actually somehow knew quantum physics. We're the only ones who actually know quantum physics that I know of," Rich babbled away, not realizing Dustin's expression changed vividly out of every word that emerged from Rich. 

" This isn't a prank? You're telling me, that this day, this particular day, has been going on for _three _years?" Dustin questioned again, his joint's flame went out as he dropped it onto the covers of his bedroom. Both their eyes met, the flame in Dustin's joint had gone into his eyes. His eyes flickered with realization, and his attention was entirely on Rich.

Rich sighed, and moved his hand swiftly, patting Dustin's shoulder. " Please, you gotta believe me. Haven't you felt that strong sense of deja vu today?" Rich noticed how Dustin started to mutter small things to himself. It was probably a lot to take in, especially since he remembered the day before clear as, well, day. 

" I believe you. I don't why. But I just...do." Dustin paused, biting his lip, his eyes moved away from Rich. " Is...is anyone else trapped in this?" Dustin must be thinking of someone. Maybe Christine. Christine probably acted differently because of her ADD, she changed decisions too quickly every loop. She never acted the same in every loop. She always did something, well, different. 

" Just me. I would know if someone else was trapped with me," Rich answered, Dustin's raised an eyebrow again, but didn't push the question further. The two sat in silence some more, and they could both hear some sort of commotion going on upstairs, Dustin frowned at that, his eyes told Rich he wasn't fond of loud noises.

Someone pounded on the door, sounded like the pounding Rich's dad would do when Rich locked the door. " Dustin Kropp? It's me, Christine. Is, um, _he _with you? Richard Goranski?" 

Christine. She said his name like it was some disease, as if she would die if she even mentioned him. Rich was used to that. Dustin's frown twitched and soon it turned into a scowl. " He's in here all right. What does that mean to you? You _hate _him. But I like him. He's actually a real fuckin' nice person. So if you're not sure to compliment him, go _away,_ Christine."

Christine sighed on the other side of the door, before Rich heard her footsteps fade back upstairs. Rich shifted a bit, he just witnessed something between Dustin and Christine. Not a fight, but, it was still mortifying to sit through. 

Dustin got up from his bed and grabbed his hat sitting on his desk. It was a flaming red, normal baseball cap, had the Jersey Devils symbol on it. How exactly did Rich know that? Well, first off, the Jersey Devils is the main sports team of New Jersey, at least for Rich. Secondly, his mom loved ice hockey, and managed to go to almost every Jersey Devils game that actually took place in New Jersey. Rich...missed her. 

" You like the Jersey Devils?" Rich asked, continuing to stare at Dustin's hat. Dustin looked over at Rich, and his eyes glanced up at his hat. 

He nodded at Rich. " Yeah, my dad loved them before he-, er, he always went to the games with his childhood best friend. He gave me this hat when I was in seventh grade. I think his friend's name was something like Selene. Like that moon goddess."

_Selene. _Rich picked at the lint that was trapped in his hoodie, trying to forget Dustin even said the name Selene. " Are we going somewhere?" Rich asked, another question of course. 

" I was thinking we could talk all of this over, I can make a logical conclusion, see if we fucking die, at Wawa," Dustin replied, a wink with an eye toward Rich. Oh hell yes, Rich sure did love Wawa. When he died again he hoped it would be at Wawa. But it's only 6:32.

" Technically, see if I die. Maybe when the clock hits 11PM, you'll see the world reset or something like that."

" That'd be so shittin' cool."

The two of them began to head out the house, but of course, they just had to be stopped by someone. That someone was Brooke Lohst.

" Oh, hey Dustin. Dick. You two, uh, heading somewhere?" Brooke asked, her voice having some sort of...tone in it that Rich couldn't quite figure out. Wait, wait did Brooke just call him _Dick? _ Dustin rolled is eyes in Brooke's direction. His brown eyes seemed to be just as icy as Chloe's cold, life threatening glare.

" Oh, hi there _Brooke_. I didn't notice you there, you must of, uh, been waiting out my door for awhile," Dustin said, giving his hat a little twirl. Brooke moved her mouth to speak but Dustin cut her off. " If you're gonna try and seduce me, it won't work, I'm as straight as that dinner plate over there. See that? It doesn't have anything straight in it. Like me." 

Well, Dustin sure did have a lot of confidence in himself. And he just cut off _Brooke Lohst, _second in command of _Chloe Valentine. _Brooke blinked a few times, before she spoke again.

" I wasn't gonna seduce you dumbass, I was just gonna ask where you were heading," Brooke growled. Rich wanted to say something, but it felt like he lost his voice once Brooke showed up. She was a lot taller than Rich, and by a lot taller, just a few inches taller. 

" Nowhere. We're heading nowhere."

Rich cleared his throat, finding an ability to say one sentence. " We're going to _my _house." 

Brooke stared at Rich and Dustin, but before she could even say anything, Rich pushed Dustin out the house, along with himself, to get themselves some damn Wawa food.

* * *

Apparently, a lot of other people went to Wawa on December 20th. There was at least a dozen customers, all using the tablets to order the specific sandwich they wanted. Dustin had a strange order He made sure that all that was on their was cheddar and artisan bread, before asking Rich what he wanted.

Rich knew his order would make Dustin think he was a weirdo. " Um, the Chicken Finger Hoagie? With...American cheese on the top and bottom." Adrian would kill him if he found it he ordered a Chicken Finger Hoagie. The goop thing already does that job for him.

Dustin's face lightened up. " Mad respect for ordering that. I mean, I just like the Chicken Finger Hoagie by itself but, a lot of people hate it. So I haven't gotten it since I was a kid." Rich smiled at Dustin's comment, he really liked Dustin. He was like, that friend he never got in his whole life. " Wanna drink?" Dustin asked, showing his wallet.

" Oh, uh sure? I'll just have a Mountain Dew Pitch Black," Rich said, it was simple. Dustin didn't say anything back, possibly he nodded, but Rich wouldn't know. Rich was busy looking at the clock once again. Rich was scared. He was scared that he would be killed right next to Dustin. Rich was scared for Dustin. Dustin seemed to be remembering pieces of previous loops one by one, but is he gonna get killed himself? Or something worse? Would Dustin have to deal with watching Rich die? Or would Dustin have to deal with feeling that first bit of pain once you're killed? 

His heart pounded. He could feel it. It seemed to be getting louder. And louder. And louder. Until-

" Rich? You alright there? You seem...out of it?" Dustin asked, his voice made Rich snap out of it, for the time being. Rich took a small bite out of his sandwich, quick, think of something! Rich glanced around and saw the Jersey Devils hat on Dustin's head once again. Jersey Devils. Sports team. Sports. Jake. Jake Dillinger.

" I'm thinking about someone," Rich said, another bite being taken out his sandwich. Dustin's face seemed to change color, and he looked over at Rich for just a second or two. 

" Someone? Uh, can you describe them to me? Are they, um, are they a boy?" Dustin asked, his voice quiet and subtle, the last word being slid out. Of course they're a boy. It's Jake Dillinger. 

" Yeah they're a boy. And he's tall-"

" Every single boy is taller than you here."

" Shut up, Dustin."

Dustin let out a laugh, it sounded like silver bells, nice silver bells. The opposite of Rich's which sounded like a bunch of dishes crashing onto the ground and making a mess. " So, like, is he person of...color?" 

Rich rolled his eyes. " He _is _a person of color. There, that knocks out almost the entire school. Now there's maybe about five hundred kids left to choose from." Dustin's grip against the steering wheel loosened up a bit.

He asked another question. " Is he smart? Like, smart smart? Or clever wits smart?"

" AP Physics smart enough? And AP Bio enough for you?" Rich knew by now the answer was probably pretty obvious. Dustin's eyes lit up at AP Physics, but, something changed with them when Rich had said AP Biology.

" …It's Jake, isn't it?" Dustin asked, an anxious laugh came out of his mouth.

Rich gave Dustin a nod. " Yeah, he's the best. But the worst. I hate him. But then I love him. He's always a bitch every loop. It doesn't stop my heart though. You don't choose who you fall in love with."

Dustin let out a barely audible whisper. " You don't." Dustin's eyes went to the time and he muttered, " Shit." Rich sent him a concerned glance, his eyes now narrowed.

" Dustin? What's wrong?" Rich asked, before Dustin could even give Rich an answer, he glanced at the clock. How did time pass so quickly? It didn't make sense. It couldn't make sense. 

It was already 10:09PM. But it was _just _7:30PM. It couldn't be 10 already.

The hissing from the engine told Rich otherwise. 

He didn't know exactly what happened. But he remembered yelling.

Dustin being flown out the window. 

Explosion.

Blackness.

…

…

Blackness.

* * *

Rich opened his eyes to darkness, it was...weird. All he could see was darkness, but, something glowed that let Rich be able to navigate his way through the dark. The floor felt all...sticky. But thin. As if at any moment he would fall, and scatter into the unknown. Rich felt his heart pound at a quick rate, and it was like...that was the only thing he could hear. That was the scary part. He didn't hear any noise at all. Nothing. 

Silence. All the noise only came from himself. He made his way through the darkness, hoping to find a way out.

Wait.

Hold on.

Why is Rich here? He should be somewhere. He was supposed to be somewhere else.

He was supposed to be in the loop again.

Instead he was...somewhere else.

It wasn't in the loop. But it wasn't December 21st. It was...who knows where? Rich adjusted his glasses to try and see more clearly into the darkness. All he could see was just more darkness and...static? 

Static. TV static of all things. But no noise eve challenged to go into this dark place.

It was quiet. It was the dark. Nobody around. It was sticky too. With black tar everywhere. No walls either. Nothing in general. 

Rich tried to take a deep breath, all he had to do, was recollect his memories, and everything would be okay. It _had _to be okay. Alright, alright, alright. You can do this Rich. You can totally do this.

He remembered being in the car with Dustin. And he remembered just talking. All he did was talk to him. And then...the hissing of the engine. It scared Dustin. Scared him so badly that he crashed his car...in a tree. In the forest. He flew out the window because his seatbelt. It wasn't on. Rich had his on though. With the impact of the crash. The engine blew up. He screamed. Dustin screamed. 

Fire. Explosion. Pain. So much pain. It hurt. Everything hurt.

Rich caught a glance of Dustin before he well, died again. Dustin stared right at him, his eye...oh god his eye. His eye was just, gone, goodbye, gone. And his hat? Gone? Blood everywhere.

And then Rich blinked. And opened his eyes to this place. What was it? What was it? What was it?

Was Dustin okay? He had to be okay. And there wasn't any sign of Dustin around here, so he had to be safe. Maybe he already woke up. Maybe he was trying to find where Rich was. Maybe...okay Rich had to stop. He had to calm down. 

So he pulled a stupid move. " Uh, hello? Is anyone here in this...goop place? It's kind of quiet and I wanna wake up?" Wow, nice going Rich. If anything is here, you just woke it up and now it's gonna kill you. Good job Rich! 

But nothing happened. 

Something had to happen soon but...nothing.

And then Rich saw _it_.

Towering over him, it's claws sharp as the night's blade, it's body sucked any sort of light into it, it's face...it's face. It didn't have one. Rich's heart went back to pounding in his ears. His stomach was filled with dread. This thing didn't have a face. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. 

No sign if kindness in it's appearance. Rich couldn't feel his legs at that point. A dripping noise filled the room, Rich felt terror develop in his mind. After all the silence, many minutes of it, there was noise not from him. He's gonna die now. He's gonna die and not wake up. 

Yet Rich still chose to take another step toward the midnight black beast, nothing in hand. 

" Richard Goranski approaches me, doesn't he?" 

The voice made Rich stumble, onto the ground, and he couldn't move. Now his heart didn't pound. It stopped. It turned around to stare right at Rich. And it did, despite not having any eyes.

Rich kept silent, he was too...terrified to do anything, let alone speak to the thing that was right in front of him. 

" It isn't very polite to not reply, is it not? You remind me too much of your mother. Such a nuisance, trapped me again in this place." 

Rich snapped at it, " Don't even mention her you little...bitch." 

It, whatever it was, started to take a form of something...but what it was, Rich wouldn't know. It started to use the floor to it's advantage. Rich couldn't stand. He couldn't move. Only listen and see. And talk.

" Not a girl, Richard. Or a boy. Think of me as, an it. You Goranskis always were the smartest of the bunch."

Rich rolled his eyes. " Get your facts right. My mom's maiden name was Tomaras. _Selene Tomaras, _thank you very much."

It did a flick at Rich's face. " Incorrect. That was your father's last name before he married your mother. Your mother's last name was Goranski."

" Hey, you little shit? Why don't you shut up? Because your information is wrong," Rich snapped, his temper reaching it's limits. All it did was let out this, this laughter, not like any Rich had heard before. Cold. Glitchy. Dark. Evil. All these things summed it up well.

" You even sound like your mother? Well, that won't matter. You'll be dead before you can stop _me." _

Rich! Just talk or something! Don't just sit down and listen to this monster's monologue about how he's gonna _fucking _kill you!

" Hey, Mx Monster! Uh, how do _you _know my mom? Were you two friends?" Rich asked, out of any anxious laugh that occurred, he pretty much beat them all with the laugh that came out of his mouth.

" No you idiot, we fought each other in the year of 1995. This happened all before you know? Every 24 years I'll come back and do some sort of loop. Then when I'm bored or the people trapped in it figure out too much, I kill them off, one by one. No group had ever been able to defeat me before. And no one, ever will. And I'll make sure you're the first to die, Goranski." Huh. He already managed to get that much information on this thing? It's...this thing's fault for the loop. 

The creature started to approach him again, what would be something that could send this thing into a full out monologue? 

" If you're gonna try and send me into a monologue, it isn't gonna work. You already gained enough information for today. Or, ever is the correct term."

Rich closed his eyes tightly. " I'm not gonna get killed by something that's a fucking rip off of an Oozer!"

Nothing seemed to happen.

Rich opened his eyes.

Light.

Sound.

…

Fear. 

* * *

* * *

It was maybe 5:27AM, the sky was still dark, but now it was loop 1096. Loop 1096. Loop 1096. It didn't feel like a loop anymore. Not after Rich had encountered...it. But the calendar still showed December 20th. It was December 20th, 2019. As always. And Rich couldn't even remember what he ate for dinner the previous day. December 20th had happened too many times for him. 

School started for Rich at 7:30AM, but for some reason he woke up at 5:15Am instead of 7:02AM as usual. Rich wanted to sleep more. But he couldn't. His eyes wouldn't dare let him fall back asleep after what happened to him. Whenever he closed his eyes...it was there. That thing was right in front of him. It's teeth sharpened. If Rich thought the loops were bad, that thing, that thing that was planning on killing him was even worse. 

Rich heard the front door of the house slam shut, his dad left for his job at the warehouse. Now Rich could actually leave his room instead of playing random games on CoolMathGames. 

Rich made his way downstairs, already dressed for the day, he was in his oversized Dungeons and Dragons hoodie again, but changed his sweatpants to a dark green, and sneakers. If he had to run, he would have his sneakers. When Rich opened the fridge, nothing was in it, set aside the pizza box from last night, a half filled bottle of orange juice, and probably a gallon of milk.

Of course, Rich had forgotten he never ate breakfast at his house. He either never ate and waited till lunch, or ate a slice of pizza from the previous night. But Rich's stomach was basically yelling him to eat breakfast food.

Then Rich remembered something, it hit him like a truck. Dustin. Dustin. Dustin. Was he okay? Is he alive? Did that monster thing kill him? Where was he? Rich grabbed his keys from the table, slid his phone into his pocket, and grabbed his backpack before heading out Rich had to know if Dustin was okay, or remembered him at all.

He tried to remember Dustin's address as best as he could, it was number nine right? Or was it 29? 99? Shit, Rich wasn't gonna get any of this in time. Thank god that Dustin lived a walking distance from Rich's house, or he'd be dead. 

Rich's eyes glanced around a bit, and his eyes fixed onto the largest house in the neighborhood. It was two stories like the rest, but had a bigger acre of land. That was Dustin's house. Rich stuffed his hands into his pockets for just a bit, and jogged his way to the fence that guarded the backyard of the house. Rich could totally jump it like in those movies.

Rich put his feet through the holes, and placed his hands at the top, he kept wobbling around on the top. And then he fell face flat into the snow. 

" Shitting dammit, ow!" Rich yelled, holding his nose which got the full impact of the fall. Was it bleeding? Oh _god _it's bleeding. Rich staggered up, his legs felt like that butter sculpture at the Art Show last year. After a few minutes of regaining his strength, he managed to knock on the back door lightly. 

No answer.

**Knock Knock Knock**

" Dustin! Are you okay? Uh, I wanna know if you're alive? Are you _fu-" _

The door was swung open, and instead of Dustin Kropp, a taller man, big-boned Rich could say, but, he looked strong. Was he gonna beat him up? This was a bad idea. You know this person looked like his dad.

Oh god were they related? Someone help him for the love of god so he doesn't die.

" It's 6:10 in the morning? Who are you? A friend of Dustin's?" the man asked, his tone was actually...still scary.

" Yep! A friend of Dustin's! Um, sir?"

…

The two stared at each other for a bit. One pair of eyes were filled with fear. The other was filled with confusion and...just looked terrifying toward Rich.

" Then why don't you come on in? I'm making breakfast right now, and Dustin seems to be...off right now," the man said, now Rich realized this was probably Christine's father. Of course, why did Rich this was his own...

Nevermind that. Rich gave Christine's father a weak smile. " Thank you, Mr Canigula. I'll help Dustin with whatever problem he has." Rich moved past Christine's father and thanked the gods, or god, or whatever made this place, that Christine's father didn't ask how he got in the back. He found Dustin's room after a few minutes, he did a small knock.

" Dustin? It's me...Rich. You know, Rich Goranski," Rich muttered, he heard shuffling from inside the room. 

**Click**

Dustin looked like he just came out of hell. Literal hell. His skin looked pale, and his eyes didn't have any emotion. But once his eyes stared at Rich, they lit up with emotion. " Rich...you're...here. Like here here. Not dead. Alive."

Oh...right. Dustin, he saw Rich...die in that explosion. 

" Dustin, how do...you feel? After your first death that is?" Rich asked, patting Dustin's shoulder. Dustin's eyes turned dull again, his mood transformed again in just one simple sentence. He went over to his bed and sat down, his hand shook every second.

" I just...I don't remember much. I remember you dying...I remember the flames...but...then the car blew up. Your face...oh god. I wandered around the woods for awhile? I was...hurt badly. But I tried to escape, and then...I felt pain. God, so much pain in my...head. I saw some...goo thing. I saw...the **_squip?_**_" _Dustin explained, he looked at a picture on his desk. Rich turned his attention to it as well, and...it looked like Dustin's family.

There was a woman who was small, but looked built still. She had leather black hair that was cut like a mohawk. And her eyes were filled with that kind of joy only a certain type of people could have. Next to that woman, which Rich knew was Dustin's mom, was a tall, lanky man, he wore round glasses and Rich could tell he had some sort of nerd vibe (Rich was a nerd too) coming from him. His eyes were a dark brown, and his skin was dark, his hair reached the tips of his shoulder, dyed with a dark red. 

A small boy was in between them, had to be Dustin. He looked so...happy. He looked different from how he did now. For one thing, he didn't have that scar that cut across from Dustin's forehead to his eyebrow. 

Wait, s_quip? _ Was that the name of the monster Rich encountered in his dreams? He cleared his throat quickly. " Uh, Dustin? Did you say squip?" 

Dustin did an affirmative nod. " Yep, my dad told me about it. He always made up these wild fantasy stories, about how he and his childhood friends took down monsters from the years 1995-1997. Until...well, when I was nine, he told me we would be attending a funeral in New Jersey. We lived in New York, by the way, I asked why, and he said his childhood best friend just died. Wouldn't tell me why. And...on the way there...the car engine..." Dustin trailed off, and had to take a deep breath.

" Dustin...you don't have to finish...take deep breaths, c'mon," Rich tried to assure Dustin to stay calm, and Dustin had followed the advice Rich had given him. And his eyes returned back to Rich's.

" And then I moved to New Jersey...with Christine. She...wasn't happy about it at first, but then, I guess after she heard what happened to my parents, she invited me to sit with her friends. I wanted to sit with someone else but...I never got the courage to talk with them." Dustin swallowed hard, but looked at Rich, his eyebrows narrowed again. " Rich? Is something wrong?"

Rich had to take deep breaths, he had to follow his own advice before he could look at Dustin. He came to a realization. Dustin's dad...and his mom. They were...it couldn't be. Rich was just making things up in his mind. " I'm good, I just...feel bad, you know? 'bout your parents."

Dustin did a thumbs up, and stared at the clock. " Is this what you went through? The same day...over and over? The same interactions...yet you had to stay the same in front of everyone else? People you...cared about. You had to pretend you were okay in front of them?" 

Rich's thoughts went to his brother. Everyday at 4:43, he would call...and Rich would pretend he was happy. That he was okay. But he never...was. And there was loops. Loops where Rich couldn't handle it all. And...well...he never was able to get through with it. He would just stare at his reflection in the mirror, and pretend be okay. Always a smile when his brother called. Rich wanted to see him again.

" Yeah...I really did stay the same for the sake of those...I care about," Rich said, letting a sigh escape his mouth. The two sat in mutual silence, waiting for something to happen.

" Everyone? Breakfast's ready!"

* * *

Turned out Jeremy was at the table, which pretty much confirmed it for Rich that Christine and Jeremy had been secretly dating for awhile. Because Jeremy is not trapped in the loop, of course.

The table conversation was awkward enough, especially after Christine freaked out upon seeing Rich. She sure did hate him. But Dustin told her to knock it off.

After breakfast was over, Christine's father had told Dustin he would take Rich, Jeremy, Christine, and himself to school that morning. Dustin's face pretty much told Rich that Dustin had heard all this before and was creeped out.

Did Rich mention the Canigula's had a decent amount of money? They weren't rich, but they had better than average cars, but the one Dustin drove was a busted up 80s mustang, the engine seemed to work, and Dustin loved it. Jeremy mentioned something about Michael when he saw the car. 

Rich got shotgun, since Dustin said the lovebirds should sit in the back, but...then questions started to happen. 

" So like, how long have you guys been friends?" Jeremy asked, fiddling with his cardigan. Dustin stared at Rich, giving him a wink, mouthing 'don't answer anything seriously'.

" 420 years, and we've been so strong as a friendship," Dustin cackled, almost losing control of the car since he started to snicker as well. Jeremy frowned, and did a deep exhale.

" Serious-"

" 420."

Christine cleared her throat from the back. " Richard, how did you two meet?"

Oh god oh god oh god. Rich blinked and said quietly, " In...Atlantis?" 

Dustin swerved the car more and his silver bell laugh filled the car. Christine let out a sigh, and started talking to Jeremy again. Dustin started to put his focus on driving again, his fears starting to control him once more. 

Rich stared out the window, and closed his eyes just for a bit. Only for a bit. And then It showed up. 

**_" Looks like you trapped someone else in my loop. Boohoo. Not to fear, you'll all be dead soon."_**

Rich's eyes shot open and he clutched onto the edges of the car door. Dustin took notice of this, and his eyes changed moods again. " You alright, buddy?" Dustin asked, trying his best to sound comforting.

Rich gulped and tried not to sound crazy. " I saw them again. They said it was disappointed that you're with me." Rich gave Dustin a frown, and sighed. Dustin's eyes glanced at Christine and Jeremy for a second, worried. 

" Let's talk about it at school, kay? It won't hurt you when I'm around," Dustin grinned, and did another flip with his Jersey Devils cap. Rich managed to get out a smile, and laughed.

" Let's skip class, we can talk about it then. Not like it matters if we miss homeroom. It'll happen again," Rich suggested, making sure his wording didn't make Jeremy and Christine suspicious. 

" Sounds fine by me, of course."

Jeremy let out a loud cough and gave Rich a glare. " I'm sorry, but you shouldn't exactly skip class?" Rich almost laughed, Jeremy always skipped class, mostly PE class, which well, Rich did the same.

" You're one to talk, I bet you and Christine skip class all the time since you two are what, secretly dating?" Dustin said, a smirk going onto his face as Jeremy went beet red. 

" We don't skip class to make out or anything! Because we don't _skip _class!" 

" And I don't smoke pot everyday."

" Just- shut up, Dustin!"

" Make me!"

Jeremy reached over and swiped Dustin's cap. " You're not getting this back until you apologize for suggesting I skip class." When did Jeremy get this confident again? He's never confident in anything he does.

" Give it back! Or...or else!" Dustin's voice shook a bit, but he was still driving, he was near the school entrance. 

Rich spoke up. " You should probably give it back. It's...his dad's." Dustin didn't say anything.

Jeremy bit his lip, before he let out a quick apology, and handed over the Jersey Devils cap. No damage done. Hopefully? 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter took longer! And that there's multiple scenes in it! But anyway, as you can see, The Squip is a bitch and basically killed a bunch of people. 
> 
> Rich's mom was also a badass? She was basically Huntara from She-Ra but better and nicer.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter and leave a Kudos maybe? I'll try to get another update this week.


	4. Chapter Four: Jake

The group seemed to have been plagued with utter silence. Jake felt beads of sweat go down his forehead, this was a bad move. He should of just kept it to himself. But of course he had to make sure his friends didn't think he had a crush on Richard Goranski. Richard Goranski was just, a person, a really cool person, who had nice hair and eyes? But Jake had to make sure he remained that _straight_, cool, great at everything, sort of dude. And Chloe seemed to want to like him, Jake thought Chloe probably wanted to date him again. 

Jake continued to stare at everyone, they all looked...bewildered? " Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, but, I guess I just thought...with how he acted? And...this is stupid." Jake sighed, turning his attention to the clock. 

Surprisingly, it was the person Jake least expected to say anything. " No, he's right. That would explain how he acts every loop. Every time...he acts different." It was Chloe who said that. Jake gave Chloe a small smile, someone didn't think he was crazy.

" Thank you, Chloe. Look, let's get the facts, he avoided almost every interaction today. He is in this house _right _now as we speak! Come on! Is that not enough evidence for you?" Jake explained his reasoning, using dramatic hand movements for some strange reason. 

Chloe added on. " He has a point. Although...this would mean there's a reason he's always such a dick. Because he uh, remembers all the shit we did to him. And also, he's been through three years without a single person he could actually be himself with? I'd probably do shitty things too." 

Ironically again, Brooke was against this. " It doesn't matter if he's a part of the loop or not. He hurt us...a lot. And shoved Jeremy against a locker. Just because he suffered through the same thing as us doesn't give him the right to go off scot-free."

Jenna piped up, and scooted over to Brooke's side. " I agree with Brooke. Isn't he a pervert? Chloe said so."

" I take back what I said now! Look, I was wrong to call Dick- uh, Richard a pervert. All he did was walk into me, so, I was wrong there, I guess." Chloe admitted, her true colors showed for a second. Jake knew Chloe wasn't a bad person, she just, judged people too quickly. And she took out her anger on others, especially after her...aunt died in freshman year. It wasn't exactly the right timing, especially since that aunt was the one Chloe always went to over the weekend. 

Jake cleared his throat again. " I'm just saying, we did bad things too. Like uh, remember that rumor Jenna made about him? The one where Jenna said Richard set a house on fire in like...New York? And almost killed a bunch of people? Because that wasn't cool, Jenna. That was fucking rude."

Jenna didn't say anything. Brooke said something for her instead. " He deserved it? He yelled at Christine when she dropped her food on him." Jake gave Christine a look that said 'that doesn't even sound right'.

" Technically I spilled _my _ food on him. If it was the other way around, it would be different but...we really shouldn't have let that rumor spread. Didn't Michael say Richard cried in the bathroom about it?" Christine asked, gesturing toward Michael to speak.

Michael scratched at his freshly painted nails. " Well...yeah. He was crying in the bathroom about it. And at first he told me to fuck off-"

" _See?" _

" But then after he told me he thought I was part of the rumor spreading, and then I told him I wasn't, he let me talk to him. Just for a bit. He was upset about it, and said he didn't want to go through it again. At first I thought, woah hey, he's had rumors spread about him before, but...now I guess he had to go through it for fifteen loops. That would....suck...?" Michael mumbled something else inaudible, but pulled his hood over his head, laughing anxiously when he saw the look on Brooke's face. " Maybe I-I'm wrong...?" 

Jake stood up from the group. " Listen up, it doesn't matter if he's good or not. What matters is that I know he knows a hella bunch about physics. I know that because he's in my AP Physics class and has an A+ in the class. Does he uh...know Quantum Physics...?"

Michael snorted. " Know them? He loves them? My brother told me so."

Everyone stared at Michael.

" Look, my brother and Richard's brother both go to an art school in NYC. When my brother came home, he told me that he knew one of my classmates. It was that Richard Goranski kid, got it? Just because I'm gay, doesn't mean I'm in love with every single boy in the school."

Jake stared into Brooke's eyes. " There, since he knows about quantum physics, he's a valuable asset to getting out of this damn loop. Now, if you're with me and Chloe, come to our side of the room, and if you're with _not_ doing this and can't get over yourself and people's past mistakes, go on the other side of the room."

Needless to say, because of Jake's comment, everyone agreed to try and get Rich to join their seven and stop the loop.

But now they all just sat there, not knowing what to do next. Jake could hear their discussion, but he thought about Richard instead. He felt bad for him, especially since Jake didn't like him back in that first loop. And now? Jake just, doesn't know his feelings toward Richard. 

Don't get him wrong, Richard looked pretty...cool. And he liked that Dungeons and Dragons game Brooke and Chloe were so obsessed with. Chloe had a character named Ramen of all things, and said he just had a normal life and wanted to be a badass. 

Jake tried to ask for more. All Chloe said was that he was a badass. Brooke said hers was fluffy. And that was it. Jake didn't really get Dungeons and Dragons anymore after that.

Brooke still pondered Jake with questions. " And how exactly are we gonna just...walk up to Dick Goranski and say, _oh hey! Sorry for being such a bitch to you! And we're also trapped in a loop with you so we've been tormenting you on purpose!"_

" Brooke we're not gonna say that to him- it'll be like...I'll walk up to him. And then I'll tell him he's super cool! And then I'll tell him we've been trapped in a loop! And he'll say, _Jake, I can't believe we have a connection! And you're so cool and awesome and ho-"_

" You sure you don't have a crush on Richard Goranski?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow. 

" _Everyone, _thinks I'm hot Chloe! Everyone! I'm not trying to sound like that one dude from Teen Beach Movie but- it's true!" Jake threw his hands in the air.

" Sure Jake, anyway, your plan is stupid. Brooke has a point, we can't just walk up to him. How about we try and find more...information in this loop and tomorrow, well, next loop, about Richard Goranski?" Chloe suggested, shrugging slightly.

" Like check his Tumblr account since he probably doesn't have Instagram or Twitter!"

" Exactly Jenna!"

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows, staring at the both of them. " So you're suggesting...we _stalk _him? That's your big plan? We're gonna stalk him?" 

" It's not stalking Jeremy! We're getting information about the other person in our loop!" Chloe snapped back. Jeremy rolled his eyes, he clearly didn't believe Chloe in her whole 'it's not stalking' statement.

Christine spoke up. " I think I'm gonna head downstairs to see what Dustin and Rich...ard are doing. I'll be right back." Christine got up and headed out, they couldn't exactly hear what she was saying. Well, they couldn't hear her at all if they were honest.

" Just saying, I still think this is a bad idea," Brooke said, not moving her eyes from Chloe. Chloe coughed, trying not to look back at Brooke. Those two really had to work out whatever issues they had. 

Jake went back to the realm of his mind, there he could think about whatever he wanted. And...Jake didn't want to confess it but, he was afraid. Afraid of the loop. But the loop got him to think about how he treated other people. How Jake treated his grades. How Jake treated himself. He really should work on making his grades better, and put some effort? 

And then you have Richard's words from the loops. The one where he yelled at Jake. The one where Richard said all Jake did was break people's hearts. Every loop he sounded a bit more...broken when ye said those words. 

Oh you have Jake's fake personality toward everyone! He always acted like a bitch toward people who weren't average or popular, and then he acted like he could do anything in the world. That he was hero. He was supposed to be _the hero. _All of his friends constantly say Jake would find a way out of the loop, because he's Jake. Jake really didn't think he could handle being a Hero. Not with his parents being, gone.

" Jake? You alright there? You're staring off into space," Christine asked, she was bending down to look into his eyes. Jake stared at her for a bit, Christine was lucky. Christine had Jeremy. And then Chloe had Brooke. And Jenna had Michael. Jake didn't have anyone he could vent his problems to.

" Don't worry Christine, I'm fine. What'd you find out downstairs?" Jake asked, leaning against the wall once again. 

" Nothing much, Dustin just told me to go away. Again. But Richard's in there alright."

Jeremy smirked, looking up from his phone. " I'm betting that they've been secretly dating." Jake bit his lip again, he didn't _want _Richard to be with someone else, that was reasonable, right? It wasn't like Jake liked Richard! No! Jake just didn't want Richard to be with someone who's always high. That's it.

All of them had continued to bounce ideas back and forth, but Chloe's idea stuck the most, with the whole 'stalk Richard for information'. Jake hated that idea, just for any being who can currently read his thoughts. 

Jake was heading downstairs, ready to leave, Brooke went down at one point to question Richard and Dustin when they were leaving. Jake grabbed his jacket from the front, and felt someone lightly tap his shoulder. He whipped around and saw Michael looking up at him by just a bit. 

" Hey, um, Jake? Could I go with you to your house? I don't want to go to...Jenna's house right now. And you were the only other person I could think to go to. Because Chloe's, well, Chloe, Brooke...er, and Jeremy and Christine are always being lovey dovey now, proclaiming their love to any person around. So could I go to your house?" Michael asked, his smile was a bit, broken. 

Jake did a small grin. " Course you can, my house is so quiet now anyway. Let's go die in the big empty house. But we're only playing Funk on the way there." Michael frowned at Jake, he pointed at his Bob Marley patch, but he seemed to agree to comply.

The two headed out the house, talking about various topics, mostly about what they planned to do if December 21st ever came around. Michael said his moms were planning on bringing him to Oakland for Christmas to see his extended family. Michael rambled about how he practically begged his moms to move to Oakland before he met Jeremy in kindergarten, since all of their family lived there, Ecuador, or the Philippines. 

The only reason his moms didn't move there was because both of them had well paying jobs, which now Michael was happy about. 

" I still don't know what their actual jobs are, they said they just work at that SQ Inc place, and that was it," Michael said, stuffing his hands in his pockets as Jake drove, illegally, to his house. 

" SQ Inc?"

" Yeah, it's that place in downtown Middleborough, near Timor? Makes all that technology we use at school."

" Still don't know why they put in Elementary school next to the highway, and then they named it _Fear_ of all things." 

More conversation came between them both, they talked about other things now too. And Jake felt...happy that he had someone to talk with.

* * *

Michael was staring at the clock without his glasses, he rubbed his arms, he obviously had something on his mind. Jake knew he had to say something, but he didn't know how to word any of it. 

" So, Michael...it's almost 10, you a bit afraid of death?' Jake asked, in a teasing manner. Michael gulped and scratched the back of his head, his eyes looked...red. Was Michael high?

Michael looked dozed out, and sniffed. " I...am. And it's dumb. I've been going through this for years, three years, by now. Yet, I'm still afraid. Last loop I got stabbed in the head and it just, it wasn't good and I woke up...with a major headache and-" Michael took another deep breath and stared at the carpet the two were sitting on, trying to ease his mind.

Jake patted Michael's hand. " Hey, it's understandable. Death is, well, scary. And we've experienced it numerous times. Where everything is just pitch black, and we don't know who we are and...it just...it's dumb, right? But we're gonna get out of this loop, and we'll _all_ be alive. If you, or anyone gets killed in the process, we'll die and go through it again. I promise we'll come back for anyone who dies." 

Michael gave Jake a small smile. " Thanks Jake, you're really...a good friend. You changed from the first loop. That bitch layer is gone now."

" Bitch layer?'

" That's what I liked to call it."

" Rude."

" I know."

Jake snickered a bit. " But come on, you changed to. You called me a hot jock when we talked. As an insult?"

" Well, I couldn't think of anything on the spot. And you're mainly known as a jock? And everyone says you're hot, and you are, so hot jock."

" Oh? You think I'm hot?"

" Because you are. And I already like someone else. He goes to another school, in South Jersey, I met him when his school wanted to challenge the cross country team of our school and uh. He's just hot, okay?" Michael explained, his cheeks turned red. " Of course with the loop now...there's no hope?" 

Jake patted Michael's back. " Hey, we'll get out of this loop. Now I have some sleeping pills we can use to go past the death part, wanna use them?" 

Michael did a timid nod, and they both swallowed the sleeping pills as they fell asleep in the living. Jake shut his eyes slowly, he could already feel the effect on him. And then there was black. Dark. Dark black.

Sleep.

…

…

…

And then he woke up. 

Jake opened his eyes to the light, he was in his room, in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Jake's eyes went to his alarm clock, it read 5:30AM in it's flashing red lights. He knew he had to go drive to school to have a party with his swimming team. Marcus was bringing chocolate chip cookies that would later make Jake vomit if he ate them. He never ate damn Marcus's cookies anymore.

Jake got up from his bed and changed into the clothes he wore every loop, it was that bright yellow jacket, under that was a blue Hawaiian shirt, and under _that _ was a pink T-Shirt. Jake was an extra person, got it? Oh yeah, he also had those weird leopard pants, so overall Jake looked like a character from a Disney Channel movie.

He headed down the stairs, grabbing his backpack which was hanging in the closet, and his keys, before he went out to drive to school. The drive there was...awfully quiet, maybe Jake could just skip the stupid swim team party. He didn't like them anyway. They were dicks. So instead, when he got to school, he slipped into the choir room which wasn't in use. 

Jake mostly fiddled with his phone, playing Plants Vs Zombies, he had this method of playing with it. He always had the same plant in each row, unless it was one of those minigames. Sunflowers in the back. The lowest attacker in the front (unless they were puff shrooms, then he would have to put them in the front), then it would vary throughout the game which plants went where, but there was always a Walnut or a Tallnut in his selection of plants.

That's when a message popped from an unknown group chat, of course, someone always made a group chat between the 7 of them. Usually it was Chloe or something.

_Chloe named the chat We're Not Stalking_

_ Jenna Rolan named the chat It's Lurking_

_ [Unknown Number]: everyone name me Damian Leigh in this chat._

_ [Unknown Number]: Shut up Michael _

_ [Unknown Number]: use a fucking period jeremy._

Jake made Michael's contact Damian, since Michael would have wanted it obviously. And then he named Jeremy's contact Rat Face because he fucking could.

_[Rat Face]: What did everyone name me_

_ [You]: Rat Face_

_ [Damian Leigh (but not)]: take that jeremy this is what you get for not using a period._

_ [Rat Face]: You're not even using a capital letter for my name dumbass_

_ [Damian Leigh (but not)]: fine Jeremy you're a proper noun now. _

Jake muted the chat from any messages since his lock screen started to get filled with Jeremy and Michael's arguing. Jake also made sure everyone's contact names fit them, but not in the way one would think. Such as, Chloe's name was just Giraffe, because she's tall and angry. 

Don't ask.

_[__Giraffe]: Shut up both of you. who's at school and who's not. _

_ [La Croix]: I'm at school for band practice._

_ [Damian Leigh (but not)]: Choir for me, so I'm here. Usually I don't go but I wanted to sing when I woke up._

_ [Giraffe]: Don't use your fucking phone during choir._

_ [Damian Leigh (but not)]: Fine. This is Michael Damian Leigh Mell signing off because Chloe doesn't want my phone swiped._

_ [You]: I'm also here. If that matters. I went for the swim party but they're a bunch of dicks. so I'm hiding in the choir room._

_ [Weed]:isn't michael doing choir_

_ [You]: they only use the choir room during school hours. they practice choir as a group in the auditorium._

_ Rat Face named the chat Help Dick Is Here_

_ [Giraffe]: why'd you name the chat that._

_ [Rat Face]: Because Dick is here._

_ [Rat Face]: Well Richard._

_ [Rat Face]: _ _He's at Christine's house. _

_ [Rat Face]: With Dustin._

_ [Rat Face]: Eating Breakfast._

The group chat went into a huge spiral of words after that. Luckily Jake already muted it so he just put his phone onto the carpet and sighed. He missed having a new day to look forward to. Now he was trapped in a loop. It wasn't even on the weekend. The loop just had to be on a school day right before winter break.

Jake stared at the clock some more. 7:15 now. 10 minutes before he should start heading for class. Jake took his jacket off, which revealed his arms, he didn't like his arms. They were too...muscular. But his parents would have wanted that. His parents made him play football when he was ten. And then told him he should join Model UN. And he should do whatever he could. 

The lights flickered on, and his eyes darted to the door. Madeline was standing there, with her shortly cut black hair, and she was staring right at Jake. " Jake? Thank god I found you, I made you a Christmas present!" Madeline rushed over and showed Jake a small wrapped present. A bright bow on top to complete it.

" Oh uh, thank you." Jake forgot it was Christmas. " It looks nice on the outside?" Jake did a small smile, with Madeline clapping her hands. She was babbling about someone called Eulalia Guzmán. Jake went to open the present but felt his hand get slapped by Madeline herself.

" Don't open it now! Open it for Christmas!"

Christmas. Right. The holiday that will never come. The holiday Jake hated he most ever since he woke up to nothing on that very day in eighth grade. His parents really didn't care about him if they decided to leave on Christmas of all days. And he hasn't heard from them since. Where...were they know? Were they still on the run? Were they in jail? …were they dead?

Jake did a quick thank you to Madeline, before he rushed out the choir room, holding his phone and Madeline's gift. His throat hurt. There was a knot in in his stomach that continued to pull at him. He felt like all the breath was sucked out of him for good. His heart pounded in his ears more, so he dived into the bathroom, running into a stall to hide from everyone.

He sniffed a bit, and tears were blurring his vision from anything. " G...Goddammit Jake, you shouldn't be crying. You're the most popular kid in school you shouldn't be allowed to cry. D-Dammit..." Jake felt a hiccup come out his throat, and he burrowed himself in his arms. Shit, he forgot his jacket in the choir room. It was too late for that. And it didn't matter. It would be back in the morning. 

Jake really shouldn't be allowed to cry. He was popular. Some people had it worse. They were alone, and unpopular, why did Jake have to cry over something so stupid? All that happened to him was his parents leaving him. Forever.

He didn't really know how long he was there, didn't matter if he skipped classes by accident. Everyone would just forget the next day, wouldn't they? Nothing mattered in the loops anymore. Except his friends. And...maybe Richard mattered now. Maybe. Maybe Richard could be the friend he's been looking for, after so long. Since Jake never even had a best friend. Weird, isn't it? Jake Dillinger didn't have a best friend. He always wanted one. But, it never worked out. Jenna didn't bother getting close to Jake, as she mostly hung out with Brooke and Chloe before. 

Jake gulped down any remaining tears that dared to come out, and wiped his face from any evidence that he, Jake Dillinger, was crying. If he was caught crying, what would his friends think?

He got up slowly, before he left the bathroom, by the time on the clock, it was already the period before lunch. Isn't that just...fantastic? He was closer to death than he initially thought. Jake leaned against a locker, letting out a sigh. Did he really want to go to class? It wasn't worth it.

He should talk to Michael, shouldn't he? Michael was an understanding person, and he was a friendly person toward all his friends. But, Jake knew he shouldn't talk to Michael. If he talked to Michael, Michael would tell Jeremy, who would tell Christine, who would tell Jenna, who would tell Brooke, who would tell Chloe. And all his friends would know about his shitty emotional problems. They would feel pity. Jake did not want anyone's pity.

Pity would make people think he was playing the victim in the story. They would think Jake was trying to gain more attention. So he decided to keep his mouth shut after a few minutes of thinking. 

It wasn't worth it in the long run. Maybe for a few hundred loops it would be. But pity points? No way. 

So Jake just sat against the lockers instead, waiting for the bell to ring so he could finally go to lunch.

* * *

The rest of the day wasn't great, at all. During lunch he zoned out the whole time, not paying attention to his friends conversation. Instead he thought about his parents, the loops, Richard, things like that. Totally, completely normal things to think about it. After lunch, he continued to zone out. Not pay attention to anyone or anything. Same comments made in class. Same lessons. Same...everything.

Jake had almost memorized the teacher's words in AP Physics. He heard Richard has it too, but during a different time. Jake wished he had it with Richard. Why? It's just that Richard looked cool and sounded cool and he had that adorable laugh. 

That's normal to think that way right? Jake wasn't weird...right? 

When Spanish class had arrived, the one with Richard, Jake knew what he had to do. He had to _talk _with Richard. Scary, isn't it? Jake tapped his desk with his fingernails, his eyes fixed onto Richard instead of the teacher.

Richard just looked, well, amazing in his view. And he was right next to him. So close. Maybe he could even...just, slightly brush his hand against Richard’s hand. He wouldn’t notice. And his hand’s right there. Calm down, Jake. He can do this. Totally do this. 

Jake put his hand into motion, carefully, very carefully, just, nudging his hand off his desk, and it fell. No his hand didn’t fall off it like, it fell off the desk and that’s cool. Now it’s next to Richard’s hand. 

  
Why was he so anxious about this? He’s Jake Dillinger of all people he...goddammit. Jake raised his hand quickly, which caught the teacher’s attention.   
”¿Hay algo que le gustaría decir, señor Dillinger?” the teacher asked, raising an eyebrow.

  
“ Richard got injured!” Jake blabbered out, pinching Richard’s hand lightly quickly. 

  
“ Ow! What the fu-“ 

  
“ Injured, as you can see.”

  
Richard looked like how he did in the previous loop. He looked ready to die. Sink into his seat and accept his fate. He probably thought Jake was gonna make fun of him or...Jake didn’t like thinking like that. The teacher gave them both an excuse to leave, and the two headed into the hallway.

" What do you want, Dillinger? If you're gonna beat me up, just do it. Doesn't matter in the long run," Richard said, glaring at him, despite Jake being much taller than the boy. Wait, does Richard have nail polish?

Jake fiddled with his Hawaiian shirt. " I wanted to talk with you. About something. Something important." Richard raised an eyebrow, holding onto his sleeves. He stared into Jake's eyes some more.

" And? What are you gonna tell me?' Richard asked, clearly losing the patience that was left in him. 

"I...I know you're in the loop Richard. You've been in the loop since the beginning."

Richard's shoulders dropped, any sense of confidence before had been drained out of his body. He stared into Jake's eyes again, and mumbled something softly Jake couldn't quite hear. Jake felt his nerves start to attack him, now this was a bad idea wasn't it? He made the wrong move. He should have followed Chloe's plan like he intended to. But now, oh now, Jake ruined Chloe's plan. Everyone was gonna totally hate him. Hate him for this. Absolutely hate him.

"You're...you, Jake Dillinger, are trapped in the loop as well?" Richard asked, talking to Jake as if he was a small child. Jake nodded, and Richard got into full panic mode. Alarm were probably sounding his brain, and Rich held onto his arms tightly. " Well, shit! I've been such an asshole to you and Christine and Chloe and- are they all in the loop? Oh god, please don't tell me those people are in the loop."

"They're...not inside the loop?"

Richard let out a groan. "They're in the loop, aren't they?" Rich muttered something to himself, and gulped. Jake patted his shoulder, making Rich wince a bit.

"Richard....Richard, you weren't an asshole. We literally _spread _a rumor about you fifteen times in a row! And then that doesn't scratch the surface. We were so horrible to you and I didn't do anything. All I did was pretend _you were the problem._" 

"Can you...call me Rich actually? Just, Rich. Not that we're friends or anything," Rich asked, he stared at Jake again. Jake's mouth twitched. Rich. Rich. Rich. It sounds...natural. It sounded right. Rich made a scrunched up face as he looked at Jake, despite the short conversation the two had just had. Rich didn't know about Jake, right? He didn't know _that_ Jake, right? 

Jake felt his breathing go unnatural soo enough, and he leaned against the lockers up on the wall. "Goddammit, not again..." Jake muttered, gritting his teeth. Rich's eyes changed their tone, to a much softer one.

But Rich didn't say the thing Jake thought he would say. "Why are you so damn nice? I'm supposed to hate you1 But you're just, apologizing not even three minutes out the door." Rich huffed, and looked away, his attention now on his shoes instead of Jake. 

"I'm trying to be a better person. You can always make yourself better, better than you were the day before. Or, loop you could say," Jake admitted, that's what he told himself every loop. Be a better person. Don't be the people who made fun of you in middle school. Don't be like the people you hate.

Rich did a small sigh and shook his head. "You wouldn't get it. You've been here since the seventh grade, and were popular the first day you came in the middle of the year. Like...you knew everyone already. I've been a loser since, well, forever. You've been popular, _forever."_

Before Jake could say anything, Rich hurried back into the classroom, leaving Jake standing in the hallway. Well, Rich was wrong about him being here since seventh grade. Jake has been here since kindergarten. He just went by a different name, that's all. His ears rung a bit, and he didn't realize all the time he spent waiting outside until the bell rung, and his fellow peers running out, giving him highfives as they ran by.

That's who he was. Jake Dillinger. Popular kid who had no other purpose other than just being cool. Win the games. Role model.

But maybe the loops would make him be different.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait again! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and yes, Michael is going all Romeo and Juliet with someone from their rival school.
> 
> So. There's that.
> 
> Love y'all who read this!


	5. Chapter Five: Rich

Let's be honest, Rich was freaking out over that conversation with Jake. Jake was in the loop. Chloe was in the loop. Christine was in the loop. They're gonna hate Rich! is Jake gonna tell them all? Shit. Shit. Shit. Rich scratched at his sleeves a bit, staring into space. 

As the bell rang, dismissing everyone, Rich gathered his things, rushing past everyone. He noticed Jake in the corner of his eye, clearly about to say something, but Rich had to ignore him, it was the only way to even keep Rich stable at the moment. 

Rich felt his phone vibrate from his pocket, and in just a few moments, he whipped it out, it was from Dustin, who somehow memorized his number.

[_Unknown Number]: hey rich i'm gonna go find shit about time loops today. so let's not hang out today. we can hang out tom though._

_ [You]: Whatever you say._

Well now Rich was totally bummed out. Dustin wasn't able to hang out with him, and Jake found out Rich was in the damn loop! The least Rich could do was go to the library and find some shit about Middleborough. It was a pretty old town, one of the original towns of New Jersey way back when it was first founded. August 11th, 1629. Maybe he could find something about this damn Squip thing he encountered. 

Rich hurried past his peers in the hallway, only to collide into, what's her name, Madeline. He's heard of her before, she was the one Jake screwed in September. Well. No September. But, technically September. You get it. 

"Oh great, collided with this little...freak here," Madeline sighed, and she somehow didn't spit into Rich's face. And Madeline was even giving him the light of day! Incredible. 

Madeline's the type of person who would only talk to someone like Jake Dillinger, Jake Dillinger, Jake Dillinger. Rich...didn't want to think about that person right now, especially with their conversation.

Rich slammed open the doors of the school, quickly rushing out. He knew his father would fall asleep from that alcohol at 8:32PM. Leaving Rich with a full five hours at the library. Rich loved the library of course. He'd go there almost everyday to just read. Best part, not a single bully or popular kid would dare take a single step into that library. It was over 200 years old, the floorboards always creaked, despite the efforts of Middleborough's mayor to fix it up. But they did make the walls sturdier, and expanded the library on the top floor, and added two whole more floors to it. 

Of course, Rich hadn't been there in quite awhile, especially since the loops started, he just...gave up hope. What's the point in trying to progress if everyone will just forget? You could try and be friends with someone, but they'll just forget. Dustin was...the exception. Rich figured that maybe since Dustin was Christine's cousin, that they were able to get stuck in the loop. Maybe Dustin only remembered when Rich told him...because they were connected somehow. Maybe some, platonic soul link? But who knows? And they were _not_ soulmates in the romantic way. Sure, Dustin was attractive, but not Rich's type.

Not like Dustin sees Rich any different than Rich does. Now how exactly was Rich going to get to the library? He could always ask for a ride, but Dustin was busy and Rich wasn't going to stroll up to someone and ask for a ride to the library. 

Rich's eyes landed on a bicycle sitting by the curb, seems like it's been there for a thousand years, or more. A bike! That's what Rich should use. Although the question is still there if he should use _that_ bike or not. That old thing looked as if it might collapse at any second.

It was worth a shot.

Rich faltered for the bike, grabbing it by the handles, making the bike stand up tall and sturdy. Well. Not sturdy at all. Rich had only rode a bike once or twice? He didn't have much use for biking after his brother moved out the house. His dad would never allow him to bike after his brother left, he was probably scared Rich would try and run away. 

Rich collapsed onto the bike, still unbalanced and wobbling from side to side. And maybe, after a few minutes, he actually managed to balance himself, riding his way off for the library. He was actually riding a bike! Sure he fell a few times as he rode down the streets, and hit the occasional cracks, but he was _fine._

The town of Middleborough swooped by, with only the colors of the passing buildings and people flowing by Rich's eyes. And of course, Rich noticed small things as he rode by, mostly they were things he noticed when he'd fall. Like the blood from his nose after he fell on it. And it didn't break, despite Rich being a little fragile with his bones.

Something that really caught his eye was the white flower blooming in one of the cracks on the road. Rich had fallen down for probably the ninth time by then, and he was lying down right next to the snowdrop flower. Now how exactly was that flower surviving in the harsh winter of New Jersey? Rich had no idea. Although it gave Rich a sense of...hope. Something that small, something that fragile, still managed to survive and conquer other flowers that had a stronger chance than it. 

The snowdrop flower. It really, well, reminded Rich that he could still make something of himself. Even if Rich wasn't like Jake Dillinger, who was popular, and probably the one who would end up being the hero in the end. And Rich? He was the type to just be...there. Let's take a look at everyone, besides him and Dustin, who were in the loop 

Jake Dillinger, was the hero. He was probably gonna save everyone, because he was Jake Dillinger .

Chloe Valentine? If Rich could guess, probably the intimidating one. She was scary as fuck no doubt about that.

Christine and Jeremy were easy, they were the couple. The people who die for each other and their love.

Michael was obviously the best friend who was comic relief, so was Jenna. That dynamic duo. 

Brooke...? The sweet one maybe? Does that make sense?

But then, there was Rich. He was just...there. What was he supposed to do? Was he just...an obstacle? Something to ruin someone's perfect life? Was he supposed to just be the person who only caused problems? Would nobody...care about him? They'd only care about people like Jeremy or Michael. They were lovable, of course. But nobody would like Rich. He was just, well, Rich Goranski.

Rich Goranski who would have done anything in freshman year to be popular. Rich Goranski who has a dead mom who died several years ago. Rich Goranski with the alcoholic dad that made him feel like nothing but a pest. What would Rich Goranski mean to someone? Disgust? Fear? An obstacle?

If Rich ever did something...terrible. Would people not care? Maybe they'd make jokes about him. Maybe they'd see him as a bitch who did bad things for no reason. That's all someone sees in a person like him. 

Rich was secondary character to the world, that's all he was. 

He might be thinking a bit _too _philosophical right now, but that was besides the point. 

After another 10 or 15 minutes of biking, the library had came into Rich's vision. Rich parked the bike at the bike rails, and yes, Rich fell numerous times as he rode the bike. Nobody was that good at riding a bike if they only rode it once or twice successfully.

When Rich carefully pushed open the door of the building, it was already silent, like some creature shushed over everyone who spoke. Rich liked it. He noticed the numerous college students, all hunched over and cramped at the tables in the corner. 

Rich didn't hear his footsteps as he headed toward the head librarian, Ms. Green. He had to get the key for the basement. The only place that had any historical documents or history on Middleborough.

He bounced up onto the desk. "_Hey _ could I have the key to the basement-"

After a hassle with the demon of the library, Rich equipped the key into his hand, approaching the doorway of the basement. When he stared at the door, key trembling in his hand, Rich wondered if he should really open it. But...he had to. If he didn't...he could get killed by this Squip thing. The key was shoved into the doorknob, twisting it, and the door was thrown open. An abyss stared back at him, the darkness swooped over everything. _Don't be such a baby, Rich. It's just an old, creepy, basement. _

His heart thumped out of his chest, out of his throat. Thump. Thump. Thump. Rich's feet moved like something was pulling him back, they dragged on down the wooden stairs, that led to a doorway arch. Rich's hand moved against the wall, feeling for the light-switch. His hand passed onto something that felt ice cold, it felt like Rich touched another person's hand.

The breath escaped his lungs, and he heard someone gasping for breath through the dark. Rich's hands desperately went across the wall.

It got louder.

_Where the fuck is it?_

Louder.

Rich's back had tingly feeling. His stomach did barrel rolls. No light-switch.

Louder.

The light-switch still made no contact with Rich's hands, he needed to find it right now or-

Behind him.

Rich felt his hand go upward, and he flicked the light on. Dull lights filled the room.

The only thing in the room was Rich himself, and the various cabinets with shelves neatly organized in the room. 

_Just his imagination. Nothing real._

Rich rushed for a book that could help him, maybe something like a big events of Middleborough book. Rich walked between the shelves, using his hands to guide him through the books without looking at it. Some books were thin. Some thick. But the content of the book mattered. Not it's length. 

When Rich's hand was still on the same spine for a few seconds, he grabbed the book in a swift move. But of course it fell onto the ground, causing a noise that you would hear in a classroom. Rich's body tensed up.

Another few short seconds passed before Rich picked up the book, and went to a quiet reading table in the back. He placed the book against the table, the title was simple. 'History of Middleborough.' Simple.

Rich opened the book. 

_"Once New York had been established, a small town part of the colony was formed. They named it Middleborough, after the man who had founded the town, Squip Borough. After a few years of hard work, a terrible accident occurred at the old mineshaft. The founder, Squip Borough was killed in a explosion caused by an unknown murderer."_

The first chapter mostly consisted of what the colony actually did. Rich checked the table of contents, and he found a particular chapter named, 'Murderous Years'. He flipped to it.

1635.

1659

1683

1707

1731

1755

1779

1803

1827

1851

1875

1899

1923

1947

1971.

Those were the lists dated. The book was written in 1988. It predicted the next murders would take place in 1995. That was...the year his mom was his age. 24 years after 1995.

…

2019.

Everything connected. Each year it described that ten through twenty four people would be killed in just one day. One single day. Fine the day before. But dead at by 11PM. 

The people were called loonies. They were the fine the day before. Crazy the next. Dead by night. Fine. Crazy. Dead.

One day timeloop. Timeloop. Timeloop.

Squip Borough. He died. He died. And maybe. Maybe. He's the entity Squip. 

What if Rich is wrong? What if Rich believes the wrong thing? He can't screw this up.

Rich doesn't want to end up like his mom.

But.

All the cases in the book say that they were all crazy one day and then died that night. Rich's mom didn't die until he was eight. And since he was born in 2002...making him eight in 2010 when she died. It took his mom fifteen years to die. What did she do to survive? 

It doesn't make sense.

But this Squip entity is back. And Rich knows what it wants.

It wants to feed onto the souls of everyone in the loop to keep itself alive.

* * *

Rich finished his studies in the library, and was now riding home with The Iliad in his backpack, one of Rich's favorites. The sky was already dark, and Rich could barely see as he rode down the road. That issue caused Rich to get home at 9:12PM, and he knew his dad would be furious when he saw Rich stumble inside. Hopefully his father will be passed out by then.

Now, Rich didn't exactly live in the rich neighborhood. Nor the average one. He lived at the edge of Middleborough, in the rough houses, one story ranch houses. And his house was the one in the corner of the road, they built it quickly, and worst of all, it was known that in 1876, someone was murdered in the spot Rich's house stood. 

The window signaled Rich he could walk in through the back, and...maybe he could call his brother if he's up.

Rich grabbed his keys, jiggling with the doorknob. It opened. He closed it. Rich knew the way to get back to is room without stepping on creaky floorboards. One step to the right. Another to the left. Right. Right. Left. Right. Left. 

In the corner of Rich's eye, he spotted his father, passed out drunk on the recliner. Nothing different. Rich remembered a time, but barely, where his father was a good person. A time when Rich still had his mom, his brother, and his dad. But now there was only his father. His mother was six feet underground. And his brother was in college, unable to go home. 

Rich opened the door to his room, closing it behind him, and sat on his bed. Rich wanted a home back. But now all he had was a shattered world, where he was left to pick up the pieces and rebuild his life. And now, he couldn't do anything. The timeloop would stop any progress he made with anyone. He'd be set back tone square one. So was there really a point in trying? He didn't even try for his tests he had anymore. Every single question. Every single one. He already knew them. He knew to do the work. He knew all the correct answers. 

Not to mention that everyday something would get spilled on him. Someone would laugh. 

And Rich's friend count was exactly zero percent.

Well.

Did Dustin count as a friend? A best friend either? Would they just...stop talking if they ever got out the loop? Dustin had his life. Rich had his life. Both contained nothing but going through the day and going home. 

Maybe everything would be. Better off. Without Rich. Maybe he could just give his soul up to the Squip. No one would care if Rich disappeared off the face of the earth, would they? The school would gossip. And then they would forget. They always forgot.

Rich's hands reached for his cell phone, clicking on Adrian's contact, he dialed him.

_Ring...RIng….Ring..._

"Rich? Why are you calling at this hour?" 

Rich smiled at hearing his brother's voice. 

"Adrian, hi. I just, wanted to ask about...mom."

"Mom? You never want to talk about her. You refuse to talk about her at all! And now you just want to talk about her now? Something gottin' into you?"

"Adrian. Just...answer my question. Did mom ever...do something weird? Like, hiding something, freaking out over small things, shit like that?"

Adrian coughed on the other line. "And you're asking this because...?"

"Adrian if you don't answer the question I'm gonna throw away the debating trophy you stole."

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you! Just _don't _ throw away my stolen debating trophy."

An awkward silence was placed between them both, with Adrian clearing his voice to speak.

"Well, I'm not sure if this first thing actually happened, but...I was probably four and when I mentioned seeing a figure when I looked out the window. Her face went into complete...horror. I never mentioned seeing anything again."

Rich paused for a moment, a figure? Well, since Adrian wasn't trapped in the loop (Rich tried talking to Adrian about it), it was probably just some ghost. But...the look on his mom's face. 

"Thanks Adrian. Talk to you today."

"Today-?"

"Love you."

Rich hung up. He wanted to say more. But he let some words slip out of his mouth that shouldn't have. 

Now his mom's expression could only mean one thing. His mom thought about...the Squip. That it was gonna attack her child, Rich would be terrified to if that happened. 

It still didn't answer to why his mom died fifteen years after he encounter with the Squip. Maybe his mom was just so tough the squip let her live for a few years longer. Let her have a family. Have kids. Kids...that the Squip would be able to eat their souls later. Rich put his hand to his chest, right where his heart would be. Rich never believed in souls. He thought they were a made-up story to tell kids.

They must be real if the Squip feasted on children's souls...human souls. But how exactly did Squip Borough go from human to soul-harvesting monster? Another question Rich could add to his never ending list.

Memories stirred into Rich's head, thoughts of the past loops...thoughts of Jake Dillinger. 

Rich wanted to hate Jake. But he couldn't. Jake. Loops. He knew about the loops. Right.

That also meant that they made fun of him because they were curious about the outcomes as well. That's how Rich saw it from the 400th to the 700th loop. What would happen if Rich did something differently? What would happen if Rich...did something bad?

Jake Dillinger. Jake Dillinger was trapped in a loop with him. Perhaps he could become friends with Jake. But that's just a dream. 

Jake was intelligent. Cool. Probably straight. Everyone loved him. He's literally a god in Middleborough.

And what exactly was Rich again? A loser. He sucked at talking. Hated by everyone. Rich was at the lowest in the food chain. 

Jake, Chloe, and Brooke sat at the top.

People like Jeremy, Michael, Christine, and Jenna sat in the middle.

And then you had Rich. Being eaten alive by everyone.

No wonder Rich didn't feel bad about thinking bad things about them in his mind. He wanted to be like them.

Rich swallowed hard, just thinking about it made Rich feel sick in the stomach. He leaned against his pillow, rubbing his hands against his arms. He felt the air from the window, a slight breeze, come flying in, giving the room a pleasant coldness.

The boy wondered if everyone that sat with Jake, if they have had a coping mechanism, something to help them through this. Rich wanted one. He didn't have a coping mechanism. Even before the loop started. When he was still dealing with the death of his mother.

God, those school counselors were the worst. They would constantly pick and pry at Rich, their attempts at trying to make Rich say some shitty story about how he _felt _about his mom's death, well, they failed horribly. Rich refused to really talk about his mom. If he did? He would start bawling and sobbing about her. 

This is why Rich didn't make friends anymore. And now Rich would probably cut off any connections with Dustin if he managed to escape this loop alive. If Rich started to _care_ about Dustin, then Dustin would be ripped from him. Gone. And Rich would have to deal with death all over again. It's better to just not have any connections with anyone. Adrian is an exception.

That didn't mean Rich didn't want friends. He did. He wanted people to talk to. He wanted someone to chat with. He wanted someone he could trust. He didn't want to be alone in school.

Rich got up from his bed, the time read 10:17PM, and Rich _really _ didn't want to go through dying at his house. He grabbed his phone, and slipped out of his room, making his way to the back door.

"Richard? Where are you going? It's 10:17."

Shit. His father. He forgot about his father. Shit. Why is he up? He's never awake at 10:17.

"The park, Father," Rich answered, his eyes moved away from his father, and all his attention went to the wooden floor.

"Alone? What are you trying to do? Run _away from me?" _

Rich's father took a step closer to him. Rich took a step back.

"I, um, I'm not trying to run away! I just need to talk a walk! I had a rough day today, alright? Please...just let me go."

Rich's father took a swing of his beer, Rich noticed how his arm went up, that's how he knew. 

"You _jutht _need to take a walk? That's what your brother said, before he ran away, and we never saw him again! Now, did we?"

A hand grabbed Rich's wrist, he felt his body go frigid. His heart thumped through his ears. A cold feeling bloomed throughout his entire body.

"You're gonna stay here, in this house, for the rest of your winter break. If you even dare try and take one step out of this house-"

Rich's cheek turned red as the sound of a slap went through the room. 

"You'll just have that ten times worse. Do you understand?"

Rich stared at the ground.

His cheek grew redder.

"I asked if you _fucking _understood me?"

Rich felt his face get grabbed, and he was forced to look into his father's cold, glaring eyes.

"Say it."

"I understand, father."

Rich's father let go of Rich, and a mark was left where the hand was. Rich stumbled back. 

"Now get back to your room, and go to sleep now, won't you?"

Rich didn't know why he did what he did.

But Rich shoved his father against the ground. "Get the _hell _away from me!"

Before Rich's father could even say a word, Rich hurried out the door as quickly as his feet could carry him. The wind was strong that night, as it always was. Rich didn't care if his father was chasing him. He just ran. Run. Run. Run. Run.

That's all he thought as his feet pounded against the ground, crunching at the snow beneath his feet. His breath faltered. 

Rich ran away, like he usually did.

* * *

Middleborough Park was a park that everyone went to in the summer. It had three designated spots. The newer part was for the little kids. The older playground that sat near the edge was for middle schoolers. And the tunnel tubes near the woods, along with the woods themselves, were high schooler territory.

Rich remembered the time he caught two high school seniors really going at it when he was playing near the tunnels at age ten with his brother. 

After that Rich and Adrian tried to make their own playground in their backyard. The entire thing collapsed after one of Adrian's bullies knocked it down with his group of friends. 

Adrian seemed to be so upset when it happened. His face went red and he hiccupped a lot. Rich didn't understand why back then. Of course, now Rich understood why Adrian was more upset than he was.

Rich thought those things as he stared at the tunnels, sitting down near them, picking at the woodchips. The park was always a good place to sit at. It allowed you to think about life. School. Dead moms. Faraway brothers. Alcoholic fathers. 

Rich's hands trailed against the bars of the playground, with only his thoughts. Just his thoughts. Himself. And...the wind. 

And then he came.

"So why are you here at the park?"

Rich almost fell backwards and screamed. His eyes darted toward the voice, and saw fucking _Jake Dillinger _behind him. How the hell did he manage to sneak up behind him like that?

"Give me a warning next time you pull some magic shit."

"Well I didn't wanna scare you even worse." Jake paused, "Can I sit down? You kinda stole my thinking spot at the park." 

Rich already started to get up from his spot. "Oh god, sorry. I can just leave! Not like I have any point in being here. Sorry for intruding on you, I can just go-" Rich was rambling at that point, blurting out apologizes. 

"You can stay. I didn't say you had to go. It'd be a lot more damn peaceful than thinking when my friends are around," Jake said, sitting down, patting the spot next to him, gesturing Rich to sit back down. 

Rich took his seat again, and leaned his head against his arm. The two sat in silence. Although Rich wanted to know why Jake was here. But Rich couldn't ask. Jake was, you know, popular.

"So, why are you here? I'm assuming you didn't come here to be in the freezing weather and stare at the clouds," Jake asked drumming his hands against the surface of the playground.

Rich snickered. "Oh no, I'm totally here because I want to look at the fucking gray clouds overlapping each other."

Both Rich and Jake burst into giggles, with Jake falling over, landing into the woodchips. Rich stared at Jake and felt himself laugh more, he couldn't help it. And Jake was laughing too! So it was good they were both laughing. 

"You're such a dork," Rich said without thinking. Jake stared at Rich wide eyed.

"I've always wanted to be called that."

Rich blinked. "Jake Dillinger wants to be called a dork?" 

Jake shrugged, and stared at the gray clouds. "I just don't want to be the star of the show, the hero, all the time. Being a dork...it just makes me feel a bit better. It makes me feel like a person." 

Rich didn't reply back. And the two sat in silence for a few minutes.

"You didn't answer my question. Why are you here?" Jake repeated. Rich stared at the grass, trying to figure his words out. Jake's face was mixed with concern, and worry.

"Is it your dad?" Jake asked. 

Rich jumped up from his spot. "How did- how do you know about my dad?"

Jake wouldn't meet eyes with Rich. "A guess. My dad...sucked? Is that the correct term?" 

Rich rubbed his cheek. "I don't know if I want to tell you."

Jake gave Rich a nod. "That's okay. It's your life. Not mine. Just tell me if you ever want to." 

The two went back and forth in their conversation.

And as the clock struck 10:58, Rich felt another pain in his guts.

Blackness fell through his eyes.

…

And Rich woke up to the morning of December 20th.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the short chapter and the delay in the update! But I lost a lot of words when typing and went to hit save, but my wifi wasn't on and I lost all my progress. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter either way, it was fun to write, well not fun at a certain part, but mostly fun-


	6. Chapter Six: Jake

Jake had talked to Rich last night at the park. And it was _incredible. _

He and Rich just, talked last night. They talked like normal people. 

Although that conversation made Jake wonder about Rich's reason for being in the park at that time. Jake's been there plenty of times, usually when he's been feeling down that loop or when he had a bad day. 

But Rich was there. And despite the bad lighting, Jake could see the red tinges on Rich's cheeks. Red as apples. Red. But why were they red? A redish pink is a better way to describe his cheeks.

Jake knew that Rich wouldn't want him to think about. So Jake stopped thinking about.

It was easy to stop thinking about anything for Jake Dillinger. He stopped thinking about the fact that he's been trapped in a loop for three years. He stopped thinking about how the letter that's delivered every morning to his doorstep. He stopped thinking about the parents who left him all alone since freshmen year with just a note and the small present of a cheesy dollar store gift. 

He stopped thinking about the person he was before. He stopped thinking about 'Tina Dillinger'.

Jake leaned against the wall when he thought of that name. It made Jake feel like he would throw up. It made him feel like he wasn't...enough. Thinking about it just made Jake feel icky. 

Jake noticed the time, seemed like it was time for him to get ready for the swim team party. He got up from the floor, and stared at his usual outfit. The yellow jacket. That damned Hawaiian shirt. The pink shirt. His outfit was just...bland now. 

He wanted to try something new. He wanted to dress like Rich Goranski. Rich Goranski was someone he aspired to be like. Rich Goranski, well, he seemed to be like a person Jake wanted to be like before.

Jake wanted to be a theatre kid, an artsy kid, he wanted to be everything he couldn't be right now. If he joined theatre, everyone would follow him. He just wanted to enjoy something without pulling up the mask of popularity.

Jake pulled out the jean jacket Brooke gave him for his birthday last year. It had a design full of red, orange, and yellow. Bright colors. Passion colors. Colors that came out of people's mouth that had a brain full of passion. 

After Jake had finished changing, he had an outfit that he never would have worn before with all the expectations thrown at him. But screw it, you know? Nobody's gonna remember next loop. Jake should have more vent days where he just did whatever shit he felt like. If he felt like dying his hair purple and marching into school with an outfit that would make him fall down the social hierarchy, then he walk right in there. Jake felt like purple matched how he felt. In the inside.

The time was going by quick, so Jake rushed out the house with his backpack, and climbed his car, driving off for school. Jake hummed to the music he played, nodding his head along with the beat. His eyes glimmered from what he could see in the mirror. 

Now Jake had Rich in two of his classes, his art class, and then his Spanish class. In Spanish class, he only had a few friends, but in Art, he had a ton. If Jake _really _wanted to befriend Rich Goranski and be like him, Jake would have to make the first move. Rich would _never _go up Jake Dillinger and ask to sit with him. It was like if Jake would go up to someone like James Brown (if he were alive), and ask to be besties with him. Jake wouldn't do that! James Brown is like, the best person on the whole planet Earth! 

"Jake? Why the hell are you wearing _that?"_

Jake blinked. When...did he get to the swim team party? How did he get there? Wasn't he _just _ in the car? 

"Oh, uh...I felt like trying something...new?" Jake said, his eyes never met the swim team's.

His team laughed at him, Jake tried to cover his ears. He wanted to block the noise. He didn't want the laughter. Not again.

"You should be happy enough Coach let you on the team, accepted you more likely. I mean, why should you be doing sports? You might be the best, but that's because you have an advantage for swimming."

Jake hated that teammate the most. He was a bitch. At least he still called him by the right name. 

"Maybe you should mind your damn business, I'm leaving," Jake growled, turning away again. His team didn't care. They. Just. Laughed. Jake tried his best to ignore the laughing. It didn't work.

Jake pushed opened the doors of the room he was in, and headed for the basement. Nobody went to the basement at this time. The only people who did, were couples and weirdos. Jake was a weirdo in this case.

Once he had gotten down the cold stone steps, he noticed somebody beat him into being first in the basement. The hunched figure was staring at the wall, knocking against it, and muttering something. 

"Uh, hi?" Jake asked, waving his hand. The figure almost stumbled. The figure looked Jake's way.

Jake's heart fluttered when he saw the identity of who stood there.

Rich Goranski.

"Jake! Uh, you're in the basement," Rich faltered, his breath was heard from the silence found in the basement.

"So are you! Wow, we keep bumping into each other. How...nice," Jake grinned, the smile trapped on his face most likely creeped Rich out. He noticed the book that Rich held in his left hand. Jake couldn't exactly read the title, but from the small lighting granted in the room, it was dusty, meaning it was old.

The two stared at each other, Jake fiddled with his jacket, Rich's eyes seemed to glimmer a bit at the sight of the jacket. 

"Your jacket. I like it. It...seems like you actually like it. Although your shirt is real baggy, there a reason for that?" Rich said, his eyes narrowed onto Jake's outfit of choice. Rich likes his jacket! This is great!

"I just felt like I should...where what I felt. Not live up to the standards, you know?" 

Rich's expression moved to a softer one. "I get it. You have to act the same way all the time, you have to say the same things all the time, and if you don't, you don't know the possibility of what could happen." Rich's fingers slid across the spine of the book he held in his hand, and let out a small sigh. "I don't think you'd wanna hear someone like me telling you how you most likely feel."

Jake didn't reply, he simply gave a nod. After some more staring between the two. Jake's eyes moved to focus back onto the book. "Wanna skip class this loop? We could just, talk, you know?"

Rich stayed quiet for a moment, as if he were taking the question into thought. He gave an answer. "Eh, why not? I've got nothing better to do in the first place. If, uh, you don't count staring at the board you've already seen a thousand times before as something." 

"It's not, now c'mon, we can hang in the library the whole day."

Rich beamed.

"Oh but, before we go, mind telling me what that book is? My curiosity is getting the better of me," Jake questioned. Rich's hands grasped tighter against the book, his breath shook at every second.

"It's...a history of Middleborough book. Since it was founded...in the early 1600s, you know?" Rich replied, his voice shook as if he was in front of someone he feared. Weird. 

"What's it say?"

"Y'know, stuff, about...death."

"Death?"

Rich's voice refused to come out.

"Let's just go."

Jake didn't push further, and the two headed back upstairs. Neither spoke a word. 

They engaged some small talk when they headed for the library, stuff like, how are you, what's your favorite food, would you rather fight twenty palm trees with legs and arms, or one skyscraper sized palm tree with arms and legs, the usual. 

Until Jake saw those damned purple space buns. Why was she here? Jake loved Jenna, she was a great friend, but she was gonna kill him when she saw who he was hanging out with. Jenna's eyes seemed to glow with fire when she noticed both of them. 

She sped over, her feet moving like she was heading for gym class (they close the doors three minutes after the bell rings from their last class, you get an F if you can't change). 

"What are you doing? You're hanging out with..._him_," Jenna said, arms crossed and eyebrows narrowed. Jake felt a cold rush go through his veins, he wanted to say something. His mouth refused to speak at all. 

"He's with me because he wants to be with me," Rich answered for Jake, tugging Jake to him a bit closer. Jake's face flushed, burning brightly on his cheeks. Rich looked like he wanted to say more, but said nothing.

Jenna's eyes stared into Rich's. "Do you know?"

Rich's shoulders slumped, and he gave her a small nod. His attention moved away from Jenna. 

"Let me come with."

Jake knew for a fact Rich didn't want that. "If we wanted you, or Christine, or anyone else, we would have asked. We'll be fine." Jake wanted to get to know Rich. He wanted to know everything about Richard Goranski. Hell, Jake was willing to learn Dungeons and Dragons for Rich, just to be able to know him. 

The hallways began to get filled with the familiar yelling and shoving, the ones that the three people who stood there heard before. Jenna didn't speak again, and left them on their own. Hopefully she'll warm up to Rich and how he totally oozed with coolness. At least for Jake. Rich seemed to cool to Jake. 

"Can we go to the library now? It's getting kinda, loud," Rich said, which was answered with the nod of Jake.

A few more minutes pass, they pulled open the doors of the library, slinking into the back of the room where the two couldn't be disturbed. Rich took his seat at the table, placing that big, old, book onto it. Jake slid right next to him, and no, Jake didn't stare at him. At least Jake that's what Jake thought.

An awkward silence stood between them. Rich sneezed. 

"Bless you."

"Thank you." 

More staring. Rich took his glasses of the rim of his nose, and wiped them with his shirt. He put them back on, squinted, before taking them back off and wiping them a bit more aggressively than before. 

"Do glasses suck?" Jake blurted out, just wanting to talk already. Rich looked like someone just scared the living daylights out of him. Jake spoke again. "Cause you know, you probably see the sides of them all the time. And then you have to clean them. And take them off when you sleep."

Rich shrugged. "You get used to it. It's better than contacts though. You put those in your eyes, blargh." 

Jake snickered a bit. "_Blargh?_ " 

"Blargh."

A slight smile grew upon Jake's face. "Well, you're not blargh, even if some people think so."

Rich's face flushed with a color. "You're not as blargh as I thought either, if you uh, want...you could come to the library after school? I'll be there in the basement."

"I'll think about it."

* * *

The rest of the day passed like a blur, Jake only remembered some things that happened throughout the course of the day. Most of them were random, and some of them were just moments that could only happen in those weird Disney Channel movies.

At the end of the day, he drove Michael back to his house, and the two decided to skip their daily friend meeting with Christine, Jeremy, Chloe, Brooke, and Jenna. Michael had said he didn't feel up to it. And Jake didn't really want to go to the library. The library sucks.

"So, Jake, how come you weren't at school? Christine noticed, at least she didn't freak out. Jeremy's been helping her with that," Michael asked, pulling out a flask (gifted by Chloe), and drank a few sips. He passed it into Jake's hands. Jake accepted.

He took a few sips. The alcohol stung in his mouth. "I was in the library." Jake paused. "With...Rich Goranski." 

Michael raised an eyebrow, as he was handed back the flask. "Richard? The one we all hated before? The one I accidently spilled my slushee on?" 

"Yeah Michael, who else would I be talking about?"

"I dunno, man. Had to double check." 

Michael didn't push on the subject, thank god, but the passing of the flask got a bit too out of hand. Jake felt his brain colliding in on himself. But it's not like he was _drunk. _Jake tried to push himself up from the couch, but all he managed to do was fall back down. Michael seemed to be rambling about his cross country crush again.

"Jakey, _Jakey. _You don't understand. He's so....adorable. Like, he has those swoops. Swoop swoop! In the hair? What's it called? Uh...swoop hair, right?" Michael said, a slur passing through his voice.

"It's curly hair, Micha. My god, you _idiot,_" Jake corrected, using the couch arms to balance himself. His legs wobbled on the ground, barely able to hold Jake up. Michael rolled his eyes a bit. The flask fell to the ground.

"Shut up. Now I wanna meat Rich," Michael proclaimed, and he tried to get up, his fists flew into the air. "C'mon, Jakey D, my man! Let me meet little Richie G! Get it? Since he's real short!"

Jake ran his fingers through his hands, and by ran, Jake meant he puffed it a bit. "Michael, my drunk buddy, we can barely walk. How are we gonna get to Richie G, anyway?"

Michael had mischievous grin spread across his face, a glint through his eyes. "I know _exactly _how to get to him."

"Oh _god."_

Michael's plan wasn't what Jake expected. Actually, all Michael did was wail for his mom from downstairs if they could go to library. Jake told Michael that Rich would be heading for the library after school. 

Michael's mom, or Mama, seemed okay with the fact that they were both drunk, but she told Michael he would be grounded for a week, along with no video games during that week. Jake didn't really see why Michael was complaining since this day would just, well, reset again.

Michael had responded with a wail. "But Mama! I _need _video games to live! Don't leave me without my video games!"

"Calm down, niñito. It's only for a month," Michael's mama replied, she let out a small yawn as she drove the two at that ancient, prehistoric, library. Jake heard that it's been there since Middleborough was founded. Freaky.

"Micha you're forgetting one thing," Jake said, rolling his eyes.

"What is it, Jakey D?"

"Loop."

Michael blinked. His expression changed vividly to a bright smile. "I still have video games! But imma get _murdered_ tonight!" 

The mama didn't say anything, most likely she might have thought Michael's drunkness was getting the best of him. How would Jake know what's going on in someone else's mind either way?

A 15 minute drive later, Jake and Michael stumbled out, with a quicker reminder from Michael's Mama to be quiet. Michael gave a smug grin and said he was quiet like a ratòn. Afterwards, he fell right against the pavement of the sidewalk. 

"My nose hurts..." Michael grumbled, one of his hands against his nose. 

"Maybe you shouldn't have ran out the car, yelling you'd be quiet as a ratòn," Jake muttered under his breath. Now here's a key fact, ratòn means rat, if there's anyone who doesn't speak Spanish. 

Michael did another smug smile. "Ah, but I am!" He did a fist bump in the air with his empty hand. Jake couldn't believe that Michael was _this_ type of drunk. Jake didn't feel very drunk. But, that's what he usually thought at parties. All those parties.

Jake knew for sure Michael would get caught being drunk if he talked to the main librarian, or as Brooke called her, the Book Worm of Hell. Jake was totally gonna talk to her instead of Michael. Smooth talk. 

"Micha, this is how a real person pretends to be sober. Watch the master," Jake said, giving Michael a wink. Michael frowned, and shook his head, his hand going against Jake's lips as Michael shushed Jake. 

"No shut up, I'll do it. I, Michael Mell of Middleborough, can ask the librarian where Richard Goranski is. Watch," Michael laughed, and made his way to the table, Jake made sure to follow close behind so Michael wouldn't do anything stupid.

The Book Worm looked up from her book, Animal Farm, a gross book, Jake hated it. "What do you two want?" 

Michael slid to the counter, his hands going along his face. A damn goofy smile on his face. "Oh hello there, we just wanted to like, find the spooky place! Six feet underground! We're looking for hell! Wait, we're already here!"

Jake shoved Michael to the side, laughing. "Don't mind him! We're just looking for a hot brunette with round Potter glasses!"

Book Worm stared at them both, before letting out a long sigh. "He's in the basement. Strange isn't it? Already knew where the key was. Didn't ask. I just saw him running for the basement."

"Thank you, fair maiden! We'll be on our way!" Michael giggled, and his stumbling legs darted off to the basement. Michael was an idiot. That's all Jake got from this loop. Michael was the biggest idiot in the world.

Jake, who had luckily drank less than Michael, shuffled after him, careful to make sure nobody noticed them. For once, Jake was happy that there was a loop, he wouldn't have a killer hangover the next day. That's because there is no next day. There is no such thing as December 21st, 2019. Just December 20th, 2019.

As soon as Jake caught up with Michael, there had an eery ring in Jake's ears. The light. The light looked as if it was being sucked right into the library basement. No noise. 

The chatter from behind them ceased. Michael scrambled to get his phone out, clicking the Flashlight option. It lit down the stairs. And right onto Rich Goranski who looked as if his soul was being eaten from his chest.

"The fuck..." Michael had let out, before his feet clobbered down the stairs and to Rich. Jake stood still. Michael's hands were on Rich's shoulders. They swayed back and forth. 

Rich's eyes burned with silverbells instead of it's usual hazel. 

Why wasn't Jake moving? He had to do something. Jake had to move. But his feet were glued to the carpet, his eyes stuck to just watching Michael attempt to snap Rich out. Jake's eyes managed to tear off the two, and onto the light switch beside the two.

Jake's feet went down the oak steps, the creaking on each step, the sounds they made. His hand flicked the light switch, bringing flare to the room. Rich let out a small breath. His eyes returned to their original state. 

Michael hands remained on Rich's shoulders. "Richard. Richard _Goranski. _The hell happened? Were you having, like, a mind attack? Is that a thing?" Michael's hands went off Rich, and he started wondering if a mind attack was real or unreal.

Jake approached Rich, having to crouch to reach his level of height. "Rich? What happened just now? You looked...sort of dazed. Empty looking?" 

Rich looked lost in thought. Jake took note that Rich was holding that Middleborough book in his hands. "Jake...I...the book. The fucking book." Rich took steps back from Jake, and to the empty halls of the basement. He paced from front to back. Words were muttered from his lips. His hands never let go of that book. 

Michael leaned into Jake's ear, whispering, "I think he's cra……zy." 

Rich snapped to look at the taller boys. "You two! Get over at this table, now. I've been bursting to tell someone about this, and Dustin has been too busy with his own research to talk. And you're in the loop. So sit the hell down at the table."

"Are you alright?"

"_Sit down!" _

Needless to say, Jake and Michael sat their drunk asses down to hear the 5'1 boy say what he needed to say.

Rich cleared his throat, pointing to the Middleborough book. "Now then, this book is making me go insane. I only had it for like, a day, and it made me realize why we've been trapped in a loop! There's like, a dead dude who founded this place, well, he had something to do with Middleborough at least! And he had ripped open a portal through spacetime, allowing him, despite being dead, to phase through to the mortal world, but to continue this process, he must absorb young souls who are ripe. Like, an apple. You eat them when they're ripe! Well, when you're 15-25, that's the ripeness of a soul. So Mr Squip here decides he'll absorb our ripe souls, and live forever. From the power of a bunch of souls. But! He can only eat those which are passed down from the same blood. Close blood. Such as my mom, she-"

Rich rambled some more, he was talking about the death of relatives, how this Squip thing does a loop, all that jazz. Michael raised his hand and Rich glared at him. "What do you have to say that is stopping my train of thought? I've been researching this since yesterday and, in the library with Jake!"

"Wait what?" 

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, Mr Goranski? Yeah, what exactly is a soul? I don't really believe in these, _souls." _

"My apologies for lying, Jake. I had to. And secondly, Michael, I...uh...I just know he eats souls. It's a thing...he does," Rich replied, his hands going all over the place. 

The rambling came to a stop after a few minutes, Rich did a 'phew', sitting down in the chair beside Jake. Their hands brushed. Jake felt his heart stop. Red ears. Red face.

"Well, that's out the bag. I think I spent way too much time for that." Rich paused, and stared at Jake and Michael. An awkward laugh emerged from Rich's throat. "So...do you guys like...George Orwell? Or space? Physics?"

Jake's heart pounded, and he burst out with lies. "Oh I love all three of those things! Uh, Animal Farm is such a great book! The pigs, um, Flurryball and Frenchie Pig! They're such great characters!"

"Do you mean Snowball and Napoleon?" 

Jake grinned wider. "Yeah! The pigs! And um, space! Oh boy, there's black holes and florpus holes!" Shit, Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake. Florpus holes are from Invader Zim, dammit! Now Rich is going to think Jake was some weirdo who enjoyed the Invader Zim series. 

Instead, Rich cracked a smile. "One, florpus holes are from Invader Zim, Jake. Two, you stated before you hated Animal Farm in Loop 578."

Michael did a wink, and slurred. "Ah! Now Rich knows you hate Animal Farm and _love _Invader Zim!"

Jake picked at his jacket, his mind was all over his place at the moment. "I just...Rich, you're really cool." 

Rich snorted, and laughter filled the room. He wiped a tear off his face and stared Jake in the eye. "Jacob Dillinger, I'm literally the most unpopular person in school. You're the most popular person in the entire school."

"Well...you're cool to me," Jake said. Rich eye's magnified behind his glasses, and sweat dripped down his forehead. 

"You shouldn't think that."

"But I do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that each chapter would be 4000 words instead of a whopping 6000, I find it easier to write that way.
> 
> And yes, this was mostly filler as you can tell. But next chapter? Oh next chapter, you should prepare your hearts.
> 
> Enjoy these little hints of love while you can.
> 
> Oh, and this chapter had an original ending where they broke a vending machine, but it was scrapped.


	7. Chapter Seven: Rich

Rich had been offered a ride home by Michael, but he politely refused. But when Rich was offered to skip school with Jake and Michael in the next loop? Rich gladly accepted that offer. An entire loop dedicated to hanging out with Jake Dillinger, and Michael of course. Hanging out with two people is already a big event in Rich's schedule, which only had December 20th as an available date. 

Now of course Rich didn't give Michael his actual address, oh hell no, he gave Michael the name of his street, and Rich would wait in between to houses. It was a brilliant plan that's what. 

So here Rich was, standing between his own house and the neighbor's house, waiting for Michael's beaten up PT Cruiser to show up. Rich didn't exactly know what would happen when they hung out. Michael was just, the coolest person Rich knew. But Jake was the prettiest person he knew. And that's something Rich was willing to admit. 

The loops also seemed to glitch out more, since today it was lightly dropping snow from the skies. It never snowed on December 20th. But Rich guessed it did on loop 1099. Rich couldn't believe it's been four loops since he's told Dustin. Two loops since Jake told him he was in the loop. But he guessed a lot of things could happen in just a few days.

A familiar honking noise came from in front of Rich, he almost winced from the noise as it was right in_ front_ of him. How did Rich not hear the honk, let alone see the giant PT Cruiser that's been right there.

"Rich? You were spaced out for like...three minutes," Michael said, his mouth formed into just a simple frown. A frown of confusion one could say. 

"Three minutes?" Rich asked, he'd only been thinking for a few seconds. Not three minutes.

Michael nodded to confirm. "Three minutes. Just jump in the car, won't you? We can talk about how we died last loop. I got stabbed in the neck, you?" 

"I drank some soda and got poisoned. Not that interesting," Rich replied. He hopped right into the shotgun, resting his arms on his lap. Michael put the gears of the car into motion, and Michael drove to Jake Dillinger's house. 

The drive there was hella peaceful, the trees passed by over and over. In New Jersey there was no such thing as sightseeing. Only the woods. Michael was rambling about...something. Rich wasn't sure what. He caught the words, 'Kevin', 'Korean', and 'cross country'. Rich decided to tune in. 

"And it's just, yeah, I talk about this to Jake. But you understand, because you so obviously like Jake and-"

Rich's cheeks went red. "Wait, I _WHAT? _I don't like Jake Dillinger! Well, I like him, but not in a crush way."

Michael's eyebrows furrowed. "You literally confessed you liked him in almost every loop. Don't deny it dude. Jake's hot, I mean, I don't like him though. I see him as a best buddy."

Shit. Michael had a point. It's not like Rich could try and say he didn't like Jake. Rich scratched the back of his neck, and stared back out the window. "Well...you do have a point. But, well, we're in a loop. No point in finding love now."

Michael tapped the steering wheel. "What about Jeremy and Christine? They met because of the loop, and they're pretty damn happy. You should see Jeremy's face whenever he sees Christine. He lights up like those shitty Christmas lights." 

Rich thought for another moment. Michael had another excellent point. Christine and Jeremy didn't really officially meet each other until the loop came into play. But the thing is, they were in the same social class of high school. The middle. Jake was at the top of the social classes, the popular kids, and Rich was all the way down. At the bottom. Where only the worst of losers lived. Maybe if Rich got something to help him...he would be liked by people. 

Rich carried his hoodie strings up to his mouth, biting on them a bit. He couldn't help it. Rich noticed Michael staring at him and spoke up, "Just leave it alone, Michael. Please."

Michael didn't speak after that. Neither did Rich.

As the car rolled into the driveway, Rich took to notice already there was another car just, right there. "Is that another one of Jake's cars?" Rich asked, changing his position to see more clearly.

Michael let out a laugh. "Uh, sure. C'mon, let's get inside. It's freezing in here for some reason."

The two of them walked to Jake's front door, Michael knocked rapidly with a grin on his face. Was he planning something? If this was some shitty party, Rich swore to whatever ruled over the universe-

"Hello Jeremy!"

Wait _what?_

"Did you just say _Jeremy? _Like, Jeremy Heere? You didn't tell me he would be here!" Rich snapped, any positive emotion flooding out of him. He felt sick. Very sick. His stomach dropped as he stared at Jeremy's stupid face. 

"Is that _Rich?"_

"Who said Rich?"

"Hooray, it's Rich!"

Thanks Jake.

Rich was practically pushed into the house, by Michael, and he saw Christine lounging on the couch with a baby blue Gameboy, with Jake on a Nintendo switch. Christine's hands slipped off the Gameboy, and luckily Jake had a carpet floor, so it didn't break or anything.

She jumped up quickly. "Why is _he _ here? Jake! You said it would just be me, Jer-Bear, Michael, and you! I mean, I'm trying to think differently of him but, come on, Jake! You lied!"

"We both did. And Rich is a swell person. So suck on that, Christine." Michael did a playful punch on Christine's shoulder. Her eyes never left Rich. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

"Just don't surprise me again. At least tell me if he's gonna hang with us, now if you excuse me, I have to defeat Gary for like, the 300th time. Damn loops," Christine said, and she went back to fidgeting with game controls, with curses at the screen. Jeremy rolled his eyes, leaning his head on Christine's head as he watched her play. 

At least they didn't freak out that bad. But Rich's heart was still pounding out of control. Michael winked at Rich, pushing him a bit more toward Jake, and then headed for Jeremy and Christine. 

Rich took a few steps at Jake, who was playing Pokémon Sword, interesting. "So, you're playing Pokémon like Christine?"

Jake did a huge nod, smiling like crazy. "Just started again, although I've beaten this game multiple times before the uh...loop. You ever play Sword? Or anything on the Switch?"

"Too broke to buy anything Nintendo related anymore. I just have a 3DS, a Gameboy from my mom, and a few Pokémon and Mario games," Rich answered, taking his seat next to Jake. As Rich did so, he leaned his head against Jake's shoulder to see the screen better. Hopefully Jake doesn't think this is weird. 

Jake looked at the starter Pokémon that were on the screen. "Which one do you think I should pick? I usually pick Scorbunny but-"

Rich stuck his tongue out. "A fire type? Go with the water type. Sobble. They always seemed cool when I watched YouTube."

"Sobble? Literally everyone in my friend group, minus Christine and Michael, hate Sobble. He's a crybaby."

"Which is why I like Sobble. Now choose him."

Jake and Rich watched the playthrough go on, with Rich enjoying the new animation of the world. Rich hadn't played Kalos or Aloha, so he liked seeing Jake be able to do everything Rich watched on YouTube. 

Michael occasionally came over to see where Jake and Rich were, at this point, Rich had taken over the game, and Jake was leaning against him to watch. Michael put his arm on the couch arm, smirking at Rich and Jake.

"Seems like you two are comfy," Michael said, giving Rich a look.

"Shut up, Michael."

"What'd Michael do?" Jake asked, looking up at Michael. Damn, Jake really couldn't understand basic tones of voice.

Michael laughed it off, giving Rich a pat on the head as he went back to Christine and Jake. "Don't worry about it, Jakey D. Just watch Rich play Sword."

A few more hours passed, when Michael let out a groan. "Guys, I'm _bored. _You said we'd hang out, not play Pokémon. I thought we'd like...play the Wii. Or you know, talk like people are supposed to do?"

Christine barely gave eye contact. "Sh, Jeremy and I are at Sabrina and we really have to defeat her."

Jeremy rolled his eyes and took the Gameboy from Christine, after some clicks he turned it off. He seemed pretty damn calm by it. "We were almost at Sabrina to be correct. I just saved the game."

"I hate you," Christine growled, crossing her arms.

Jeremy put his head in her lap and smiled up at her. "I guess that means no cuddles or kisses."

After some more arguing between the two nerds, everyone's attention got onto Michael (Jake did the same thing to Rich that Jeremy did with Christine). 

"So, Rich has some important news to share with us. He told Jake and I yesterday, but...it's about the loop," Michael said, taking a glance at everyone. Rich shrunk deep into his spot. Was _that _the only reason Rich was invited here? So he could explain the loop to Jeremy and Christine? After this would they just...ask him to leave? 

Shut up, Rich. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Don't think like that or it will happen.

Rich explained, again, to Jeremy and Christine, why they were stuck in a timeloop, their souls being connected to it, all that shit. Jeremy snickered at Rich's explanation of it. 

"Hold on, you expect us too believe...that souls are real?" Jeremy questioned, raising an eyebrow. That comment made Rich lose any drip of confidence that came while he spoke. Some bizarre animal noise came out of Rich's throat, ad he did a fake cough as he shrunk away.

"It's just, um, a theory, so maybe it isn't true or-" Rich rambled for a few seconds, his voice going to higher octaves at some points. Rich noticed the small flame that got set into Jake's eyes.

"Better than anything you could come up with, Heere. None of us know about quantum physics, Rich here is our best shot at getting out. Unless you'd rather stay through the loop? Would you rather not have to worry about anything that comes your way for the rest of your life?" Jake growled, he gave Jeremy a glare. Why would Jake do something like that? 

Jake decided to give Rich a pat on the shoulder. Rich froze. Rich's voice let out a small laugh. Goddammit. Not the laugh.

Luckily for Rich, nobody had noticed his laugh. And Jake was able to get Jeremy to tolerate Rich's theory. Now Christine on the otherhand, she was clapping her hands together, acting like she and Rich had known each other for ages. Which they have not.

"I like that theory! No, I love that theory! It's something out of game theory with all the math involved. And souls are an interesting concept. Would it be like Undertale? Would I be like, the Determination soul?"

Rich hadn't really thought about that part. "Uh, I didn't actually think about the soul party? But it's probably not like Undertale. Although that is a good game, my brother bought it for me, for my birthday."

Christine gave Rich a real smile for once. Like the one she had given him all those loops ago. On Loop One. December 20th, 2019.

* * *

Jake had asked Rich if they could talk in his sunroom. Rich didn't see anything wrong with that, so he had followed Jake in, with the occasional biting of his lips. Jake sat down on one of the red couches, he gave Rich a stare, looking at his clothes. Rich went stiff.

"What's the real reason you were at the park two or three loops ago? You didn't look okay. At all," Jake asked slouching against the couch. Rich knew he had to lie. That's the only thing he was even good at. Lying. Rich picked at the lint stuck to his hoodie, his eyes met with Jake again. Jake's eyes were similar to those of his mother's of what he could remember of her, they were large, filled with some sort of integrity, he had perfect eyes.

Rich inherited his father's eyes, he inherited his father's looks, the only thing he had similar to his mom was her smile and love of literature. The thing was, Rich didn't like his smile. He would try and practice it in the mirror, he tried to make his smile wider at first. His small five year old self would climb on the stool and practice smiling in the mirror. He tried to make it wide. He was told it was forced.

Rich only smiled by accident now. He never tried to smile on purpose. His damn smile was Rich's least favorite thing on the earth. Wait, he should be talking with Jake not having a monologue in his head.

Rich clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. "I just wanted to go there. It's a nice place."

Jake shook his head, doing a small boop to Rich's nose. "I catch a liar, liar, liar. I uh, noticed something on your face. It was...red?"

Rich's heart went to a full stop.

"I've heard rumors, from people like Andrew and Gavin, that your...dad killed your mom? That 'Goranski gets hit so hard that he's a clumsy piece of...'" Jake trailed off, and he rubbed his eyes. Rich's heart resumed it's pounding, but this time it was going at fullspeed. Jake resumed his last sentences, "That's not true, right? Your dad's a nice person, right? I didn't....I didn't see a slap mark at the park. That was probably from bumping into the wall or..."

Rich's logical side yelled out, "Of course my father's not abusive! And my mom just...died from problems with the car. Yeah. I don't get hit by my father. I don't get hit by my father. I _don't_ get hit by my father."

Jake's hand slipped off the couch, and his eyes looked broken. "...I think you're lying, Rich Goranski. I know what I saw at the park, don't think I haven't noticed you from before the loops."

Wait, what? What does Jake mean by _that?_

"Uh, what?" Rich asked, like some stupid literature character in a romance novel. Disgusting. Romance is Rich's least favorite genre of all time. Who cares if your hand just gently brushes against your crush's skin? It's stupid! They're not gonna notice anything! But that's besides the point, Rich's mind and heart are losing it because of Jake Dillinger's questions.

Jake took his hand out, Rich stared at it, Jake's hand. Jake's Dillinger's hand wanted his hand. But the _implications. Think of the implications. _"Come to my room then, I don't remember it word for word, but it was sometime in first grade." Sixth grade? Rich barely remembers when he was in first grade. He was some small gremlin who was ready to destroy everything. 

Yet Rich still decided to take Jake's hand. Even if Rich had no idea what Jake was talking about. Did Jake even go here in first grade? He sort of just, showed up in seventh grade. Came out of nowhere.

Michael, Jeremy and Christine were too occupied playing Wii Sports to notice the two males go upstairs. Rich did a glance around the house as he walked down the halls, he spotted at least 3 bedrooms. But Rich was pretty sure they were just offices or guest rooms. Jake's house only seemed big to him since Rich's house was some puny ranch home. 

Jake opened the door to his room, and lead Rich inside. Jake's room...wasn't how Rich expected it to be. Rich thought there would be pictures of sports people, and hot girls, whatever popular boys put up in their rooms. Instead, Rich found fairy lights sprung on the wall, with a dark purple painted on the walls. The posters were of Disney characters, fucking Harry Potter was even up there. 

Rich was still looking around as Jake patted a spot on the bed for Rich to sit at. Rich sat down as soon as he saw Jake pat the bed. A few minutes of looking around his room, and Jake sat in a beanbag chair next to his desk, holding a small green fairy like book. 

Jake clapped his hands. "It's storytime, on how I first found out Rich Goranski existed. I was such a strange person back then, at least I know who I am now. _Ahem. _June 5th, 2009. I got this diary for my birthday in the morning, and now I'm writing this for my first slumber party. Chlo, Brookie, and Jen are all invited. The other two might not like Jen Jen, but I liked her since we hung out at the park. My..." Jake paused, staring at his own writing. Rich raised an eyebrow, he still hasn't recalled any of this.

Jake cleared his throat again. "My parents made me invite the rest of my class, so now there's a bunch of people I didn't know. Right now I'm waiting for Brookie to arrive since she's coming early so her mom can come help set up and chaperone. I had to invite Tad, I don't like Tad since he pulled my hair on the monkey bar. And now Brookie is here! I'll write in this when I go to the bathroom."

The only time Rich had ever gone to a sleepover, was when his old best friend lived in Middleborough. That person moved to California in the summer of second grade. 

Jake continued, "Now I'm in the bathroom as I right this down. There's only one person I don't know who came here, I think I'll be friends with him. He has long brown hair and c...cute eyes? He hasn't spoken at all since his mom dropped him off, I think I'll talk with him when he comes out the bathroom."

Jake's eyes scrolled down the pages until he pointed at a particular part of the diary. "I asked the boy, who's name is _Richard, _what was wrong. He told me that his father gave him a nasty bruise before he came here, and that his best friend wasn't at the party. Me and the boy hung out, when I asked if he could cut my hair like his, he jus grabbed a scissor and chopped everything below the neck off. My parents got mad at me. But that was okay. Soon, Chlo, Brookie, and Jen found me in my room with Richard, and led us back to the party. I only saw the boy a few more times, but now we're sleeping. So, I'll just talk to him tomorrow." Jake ended there, and he looked up at Rich. Rich was mortified, as Jake continued talking, he remembered more and more of everything.

And now Rich knew why he didn't remember anything before. It was because Jake wasn't Jake in first grade. He was Tina Dilllinger. How the hell did Rich not notice this before? It's basic, Rich! Basic! 

"So," Jake said, giving Rich a look, "_there's _my proof of knowing you before and that you're lying about your father. Face it Rich, just tell the truth." 

Rich refused to say a word. Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake was trans. Why didn't Rich know this before? Well, Rich still liked Jake. He's hot. Rich is still bisexual and crushing and liking Jake. It's just. Rich was a dumbass. He was a complete dumbass. How the hell did he not know this? 

"Rich? You alright there? You're...not talking," Jake questioned, leaning forward toward Rich. Rich's eyes shot at Jake. He shook his head quickly. Rich Goranski was a lot of things, but okay was not one thing. 

"What's wrong, dude? Did my heartwarming story make you cry?"

Rich stared at Jake again. He shouldn't make a big deal out of this. Dammit, stop making this a big deal. Stop it Rich. Stop it. Stop it. But of course, Rich was upset at himself about it. Rich was a dumbass and didn't even know his crush was trans, which is vital in his life. Obviously. Rich wanted to curl up into a ball, and die. "Uh, I didn't know you were trans? It's cool with me, of course, I was just being a dumbass, and oh my _fucking_ god you even have the flag in your room, I'm such. An idiot."

Jake's smile grew ten times as big as it was before. "You...you didn't know I was trans? You thought I was, born a boy? Rich I- this is awesome! I love you! I could totally kiss you right now!"

The air became tense. Rich's cheeks were now roses. His breath was the only thing that could be heard in the room, if you don't count hearing Michael screaming at Christine from downstairs. Wii Sports. You love it and hate each other.

Jake's posture went like a ruler. "You, you know what I mean, right? Not like...in a _romantic _sense." 

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I mean, you know, we both don't want to kiss each other, right?"

"Unless you want to."

Wait, _what? _

Rich looked at Jake, wide eyes, he was stiff as a board again. Jake's face was now similar to a deer in headlights. "Nothing! That was just my thoughts coming out of my mind. I'm not ready anyway, so, just ignore it, alright?"

"But-"

"Ignore it, Rich."

Rich decided it would be for the best if he did ignore what Jake said.

The two went back downstairs, the awkwardness between the two getting there. But of course, Rich's eyes met the people he didn't exactly want to see. He didn't even notice the time. It was 3:08.

A pissed off Jenna, a confused Brooke, and a Chloe who seemed like she could care less, were standing at the doorway.

Rich knew that they would come eventually. "Fuck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this chapter was a bit harder to write, but that's besides the point.  
And December 20th is coming soon?  
One of my favorite parts of writing this chapter was of course when Jake takes out his first grade diary and reads it, honestly, it was just great to write.


	8. Chapter Eight: Jake

Jake stared at the three girls, and felt his forehead grow hot. Jake. He was an idiot is what he learned from today. Of course, Chloe, Jenna, and Brooke would all realize that pretty much everyone wasn't there. Jenna's eyes seemed to burn right through him, and she pointed her finger into Jake's face. 

"Jake Dillinger, would you care to explain why you didn't, you know, invite three of your friends over. It's alright to do that at times, but you didn't even tell us? Not to mention Rich Goranski's here. _Why_ is he here?" Jenna demanded, their height difference was far apart, so all Jake could see was Jenna's space buns. 

Rich was right behind Jake, and he did a small wave, he clearly lost any energy he had from before. Jenna gave him a glare that could only be related with fury. Jake put his hand on Jenna's shoulder, Jenna did have a reasonable reason to be angry. At least, that's what Jake thought.

"Jenna, how about we all talk about this over some hot chocolate? We know you love some hot chocolate, Jenna. And Rich could help make it! How does that sound Jenna?" Jake suggested, already backing into the kitchen. Jenna's flames went out and she took a seat next to Christine on the couch.

"Fine, make that hot chocolate. We can talk about..." Jenna glanced at Rich. "...him, while we drink it.""

"Aw Jenna, he ain't so bad. Rich is...decent. I understand we all don't want to act buddy-buddy with him already. But Jake's alright with him, and that's good enough. Surely Jake can explain why he's...here," Christine said, Jeremy gave a nod to Christine's words. 

Jake made sure to grab Rich as they headed into the kitchen. As Jake went to look through the cabinets for marshmallows, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, all of that sort of stuff. Rich hopped on top of one of the counters, kicking his legs back and forth. 

"So Jake, seems like your friends don't like me that much. Am I really hated for doing the exact same things they did? They hate me for tons of things I did in the loops. You know, yelled at Christine, bumping into Chloe by accident, smartass comments. At least I acknowledged I became a worse person from the loops, people think you become better, but...with that sort of power. To just, well, the timeloops sort of let us fix all our mistakes, and eventually being good would bore someone, wouldn't it? Eventually you'd experiment, until you're a bad person. Sort of like in that game Undertale," Rich rambled, he continued talking about how timeloops aren't the best for someone's moral compass. And...he was right. In a way. Jake listened to Rich's rambling as he made hot chocolate, which eventually led to Rich actually pausing to take a look.

Rich climbed down the counter and went by Jake's side. Jake was putting the marshmallows into each mug, by now, every person had an assigned mug, his friends came by his house a lot during loops. But now Jake added one additional mugs. Eight mugs in total.

"Why'd you make another mug? One of you like drinking two?" Rich asked, eating some marshmallows straight from the bag.

"It's for you."

"Me? You're, um, joking, right?"

"Why would I joke about giving someone hot chocolate?"

Rich and Jake stared at each other, Jake edged the tray of mugs closer to Rich. "You can take the green one. I usually take the green but I wanted the orange one today. If you're curious about everyone else's color, well, Jenna's purple, Chloe's pink, Brooke's yellow, Jeremy's blue, Christine's red, and Michael has the rainbow mug. Obviously. He fought for it, because he likes, the bright colors? But we all know why he took it." 

The sound of the fan above spinning was only heard, outside the kitchen, everyone was talking about playing the Wii. Rich's hands grabbed the green mug with both his hands and he took a small sip. "Tastes nice...let's go back to your living room."

When the two got to the living room, Rich sat on the floor, not really beside anyone, and Jake handed out all the mugs to each person. Jake sat next to Rich, just in case Jenna lunged at him or some shit.

Jenna took a bite of the marshmallows floating on top of the liquid (yes she eats the marshmallows like that), "So, Jake Dillinger, now would you mind telling us why Rich is here, and why you didn't invite me, Brooke, or Chloe?"

"Chloe, Brooke, and I."

"Shut up, Michael."

Jake didn't bother to look at Jenna as he spoke, he mostly played with his sleeves, folding them and unfolding them. "I just wanted to invite him over because he's, well, nice. And also he cracked the code for the loop, and-"

"Wait, wait, wait, Jake. Before you finish that sentence, mind if I invite Dustin?" Rich asked, putting his finger to Jake's mouth. 

"Uh, why?" 

"He just cracked the souls after I texted him about the loops during our intense gameplay of Pokémon Sword. We can explain to Dumbass One, Dumbass Two, and Brooke about the loops and how our souls are connected to it," Rich grinned, giving Jake an elbow punch. 

"_Ow, _and why the hell not? We're curious about how souls even exist in the universe in the first place, now, as I was saying. Rich is cool. I like Rich. We talked in the park, and then Michael wanted to meet him. We met him in the library. And he went through this rambling about the why we're trapped in the loops, it was pretty cute actually," Jake explained to Jenna, moving his hands as he spoke.

"And you didn't invite us because...?" 

"Because then you would have done the same exact thing you just did."

Jenna did a small cough and looked away from Jake. Brooke gave Jenna a small pat on the back, and looked at Jake. "Sorry about how Jenna, Chloe, and I came in. I was just confused, and Jenna, er, lost her temper a bit. Now, Jenna, how about you apologize?"

"Sorry for being angry that we weren't invited and that Rich was here."

"It's fine, Jenna. Just don't do something like that again, please and thank you." 

Michael held the Wii remote in his hand. "So, who's up for some Wii Sports Baseball?"

Brooke jumped from her seat and grabbed the other one. "Me! I'm gonna fucking destroy your winning streak, Mell!"

The Wii games were...intense one could say. Brooke and Michael played a total of six times, but they kept tying. They gave up. After that was tennis, Jeremy and Christine played together as a team, the other team was Jenna and Chloe. Jake...didn't exactly feel like playing. He'd rather be with Rich, who was reciting the whole Bee Movie script. 

"How'd you even manage to memorize all of that? I can barely remember the first lines they say in the entire movie," Jake questioned, tapping Rich's head. "You don't have a part of your brain dedicated to the Bee Movie, do you?"

Rich replied with a small shrug. "What can I say? Having no friends let's you have tons of time, and-" Rich felt his phone buzz and he took it out. "I'll...be right back. My bro's calling me, probably because I forgot to tell him about his roommate like I do every loop." Rich hurried off into the kitchen, already speaking into the phone. Jake would make sure to ask Rich about the phone call later.

Once Rich left, Michael slid right next to Jake. "So Dillinger, what do you think of having like, eight people in your house? Or more importantly, how are we gonna actually get of this loop with Rich's newfound information? It's not like we can just, fight this entity, right?" 

Jake closed his eyes for just a moment, he saw the void he was in a few loops ago or more. "There has to be some way to fight it...maybe it has like, some sort of pocket dimension? A place where it sleeps in and mostly lives in?"

"Sounds...science like. Maybe you could ask Rich when he finishes his phone call," Michael suggested, turning on his phone and scrolling through Reddit. Well, Rich was probably the smartest out of anyone in the room, Jenna being a close second when she isn't filled with rage, surely he can find out if there's a pocket dimension or not where this squip thing lives in. 

"I'll ask him about it, or maybe Dustin, can't wait to find out about these souls. I wonder if they show up in like, a form. Or different colors if they do show up in a form. I wanna be purple," Jake stared at Jenna's dyed hair. "Hey, do you think I should dye my hair purple? I want to dye it purple if we get out."

"I don't think it'd look good on you, dude."

"I just...want to dye it purple. It'd make me feel good about myself."

Michael stared at Jake's hair, tapping some of it. "I say go with blue, now that suits you. Like, maybe a dark blue, all the way out if you want, but leave the ends your natural hair color." Michael pointed at each area, and looked at the kitchen doorway. "Oh Rich! Hey! Do you think a pocket dimension for the squid exists?"

Rich's face clearly said he wanted to sock Michael in the face when he said squid. "It's Squip. Not squid. And-" Rich's mouth twitched a bit, and he nodded. "Mhm, no doubt about that."

"Care to elaborate-"

_ Knock. Knock. Knock._

Rich's face lit up. "Finally someone smarter than everyone in this room combined, minus Jake." Rich bounced to the door and swung it open. "What's up, Dustin? Glad to have someone who can teach these idiots about souls and loops."

Dustin, who still reminded Jake of Christine from how similar they looked, stepped inside with that Jersey Devils hat. "Glad to be invited to the party, now who's ready to learn about souls, their different types, and how they're connected to the loop?"

* * *

It took a few minutes for Rich and Dustin to create some sort of routine for explaining everything to Chloe, Jenna, and Brooke. Jake noticed that Rich was staring at Dustin wide eyed, pointing at the middle of his chest.

Dustin cleared his throat, and stared into everyone's eyes, including Jake's. "Well, after me and my partner discussed some things, which he is still recovering from, we found the scientific answer, along with historical evidence, and er, well, RIch, how about you just explain how timeloops work?"

Rich nodded, and mumbled something, seeming to try and gain his confidence before speaking. Jake made sure to give Rich a big thumbs up and a smile, when Rich noticed, it made Jake feel fuzzy inside again.

"So, basically, I'll explain it like this, on August 11th, 1629, a person named Squip Borough founded Middleborough. After a few years, he nearly got killed in an explosion. Dustin found out that...he didn't die in that explosion. But there was these people that had the ability to chant things to make them true. Not exactly like magic, but similar to it, they chant something and it happens. They tried to heal Squip's injuries so he could live and be more strong. Well, they did the wrong chant since Latin is a sucky language, and this caused him to rip through time and space, gaining him these powers related to time and space. He wounded up in his own pocket dimension? And...I've been in it before. Once," Rich explained, doing a small pause at the end. 

Jenna placed her mug down and stared at Rich. "Wait, how come we haven't been in there and you have?"

"I...don't know. But, that's besides the point, he just has his own dimension. But, blah blah blah, he wants to end the bloodlines of the people who made him into a monster that can only live off of souls."

"Souls don't exist-" Jeremy began, only to be cut off by Dustin's shushing. 

"Jeremy, be quiet and wait until I explain souls and I'll show you how they're real. Alright, buddy?" Dustin ruffled Jeremy's hair, and disappeared into the kitchen. Jake didn't bother to try and stop him, he was the one explaining about science shit.

Rich cleared his throat again. "_Ahem, _smartass trying to help you dumbasses. But now we have the context, here's how a timeloop works in general. You have our friendly, everyday, soulharvesting Squip going around eating souls every 24 years, with the exception of the 1995 incident which...I don't know how that works. But, the Squip rips holes through time and space, and phases into the mortal dimension, there, it uses it's timeloop abilities to trap some people in a loop. The more someone is in a loop, the weaker their souls become. When the Squip becomes tired and the souls are just right to harvest, it'll kill the victims and take their souls. And it'll go into a 24 year hibernation, if the bloodline is done however...well, Dustin and I came into two conclusions."

Dustin reappeared from the kitchen, eating a bag of potato chips from the cabinet. He stuffed a handful in his mouth and talked as he ate, "Conclusion one if we all die, it'll be at rest and phase from existence. Meaning we'd sacrifice ourselves right now so more people don't have to get hurt. But, then we came across conclusion two. Conclusion Two, Squip will be released into the world and cause chaos, taking all the souls in the universe and destroying everything. This is why you don't use fucking chants in Latin."

Even after Dustin tried to lighten the mood after telling the two conclusions, everyone was silent, processing when Dustin said. Jake felt his heart pound, it was like his heart was attempting to run away from all it's problems. Like Jake wanted to. Jake would do anything to just go back to how things used to be, he would kill for that. Literally kill. If someone came up to him and said to him, 'hey, go stab the president and we'll let you out the loop and back to the beginning,' Jake would grab a chainsaw and use to destroy that president. 

The only good thing from this timeloop was just...making new friends and meeting Rich, which were technically the same thing. That's the ironic part about the good things. Jake could have easily done that before the loop. Jake could have easily approached Christine, Jeremy, and Michael, and gotten to know them. Jake could have easily gone up to Rich and ask if he wanted to hang out with him.

Another problem with that. They would have been too scared to say no, or they would think Jake was just being a bitch and lying. It's almost impossible it seemed for a popular kid to make new friends with people.

"Um, how about we talk about the souls? And I'm sure we can defeat the Squip without taking a 50-50 chance of dying," Dustin said, as he took a small piece of paper from his pocket. "I want everyone to repeat after me, and say these exact words precisely, or you'll all probably die. Say, Ostende Meam, by itself. It won't work if there's other words in the sentence. Three, two, one."

Jake heard everyone in the room saying 'Ostende Meam', whatever the hell that means. So he took a deep breath, and pronounced with strong dictation, "Ostende Meam." Light flickered in front of Jake, and a dark blue swirly sphere was coming from Jake's chest. _So, it's not purple._

"The fuck is this weird white sphere in front of me?" Chloe yelled, trying to swat it away. Dustin gave Chloe a smirk and laughed at everyone's confusion. Jake gave his blue swirly thing a poke, it shifted away from him by a bit. 

"My popular kid, that is a soul. Yours is white, which fits perfectly into my current soul theory. Everyone's does actually, I'll name this a success. Kinda weird how everyone's is a different color, but that's even cooler!" Dustin said, he scribbled something on his arm using a sharpie from his pocket.

"Dustin, mind explaining what souls are now?" Rich asked, who looked pretty calm about seeing a fucking soul. Jake's eyes moved around the room, he noticed the different colors Dustin mentioned from before. Michael had a red swirly thing, Christine's was black, Jeremy's was orange, Brooke had a yellow one, Jenna's looked like a dark purple color, Dustin had a bright pink one, and like said before, Chloe's was white. 

Jake looked over at Rich, his 'soul' was a dark green swirly sphere. It looked...pretty. It was nice to look at actually.

"Souls, an interesting topic in today's society. As you can see, we can actually see our souls when we chanted that weird Latin I found in the attic. Most people are unable to see their souls, as they're too small and don't have the power. But we've all descended from those Latin Chanters, and, we embrace our strengths. That's what souls are, in theory, they're us. Our greatest strengths show through a color. Mine is pink, which means, according to the book inn the attic, Intelligence. Which means I'm the best smartass in this room and at school."

Dustin pointed at each person and explained their soul meaning. He pointed at Michael's, which meant his greatest strength was sheer willpower. Jeremy's greatest strength was having an openmind, which actually seemed to fit him a lot more than Jake would have thought. Brooke's soul meant Wisdom, she was left in confusion when Dustin told her. Jenna's soul color meant her strength was Bravery, that made her grow a huge grin on her face. Christine's soul color, which was black, meant her greatest strength was Determination. She made a comment about that game Undertale. Chloe's soul meant her greatest strength was Motivation, being able to motivate people. Everyone agreed on that.

Dustin stared at Jake's soul for a bit, longer than the others. "You...have a blue soul. That's actually pretty damn cool. It means your greatest strength is leadership. You're a leader, so, hello Leader Dillinger."

Jake almost laughed from hearing that. How could Jake be a leader? But, he couldn't argue with the soul. Or maybe Dustin was wrong and Jake's soul just meant something else.

"I already told Rich what his was, in the kitchen when we were discussing, the green one means Devotion. Anyway, those were our explanations," Dustin finished, and he sat down. The room was set into an explosion of chatters and yells. Jake didn't understand why everyone was making such a big deal out of this, they were just _souls. _Not like Dustin just told everyone exactly how to get out a timeloop. Maybe Rich would know that. Despite the souls, Rich was totally smarter than Dustin could ever be.

Jake hurried for Rich and tapped his shoulder, Rich's eyes made eye contact with him in seconds. "You. Me. My room. Now. We can call them like, uh, Height Differences Meetings"

Rich rolled his eyes. "Thanks a lot, person who's like a foot taller than me or some shit." Jake grabbed Rich's hand out of instinct to bring him to Jake's room again. They've already been there twice. Hopefully, Jake wouldn't have to open up again about his feelings. Perhaps Rich could open up, but not Jake.

Rich had stole the beanbag this time when they entered Jake's room, but hell no, Jake wasn't sitting on his bed. Jake sat down right next to Rich and looked into his eyes. 

"So, I'm lowkey curious, mind telling me about that phone call? Oh, and do you have any theories on how the hell we can get out of this loop alive?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like I managed to complete Chapter Eight today instead of tomorrow. As you can see, it mostly focuses on the science part of the timeloops.   
Seems like the good loops are slowly gonna start turning into bad loops soon.   
As for the actual soul part, that's what made this chapter hard to write, I had to make a set system about how the souls would work, and which person would have which soul.   
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you have a happy New Years Eve/Happy Holidays!


	9. Chapter Nine: Rich

Rich's eyes moved away from Jake, and focused on the lint covering the floor. He felt his hands start to shake by just a bit, the phone call was...an interesting one to say the least. Of course, Rich was happy about what his brother said at the end. Excited one could say. But the beginning of it, wasn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows. 

Jake tapped against his desk, right next to where he was sitting down. "Is it...too personal to tell me?" 

What an excellent question to ask. Rich's focus went back to Jake, and he tried to put enough words together to form just one sentence. "I'm not sure if it counts as personal or not." Rich needed to lie. If he didn't lie about the situation with his father, then Jake would try and help him. "My father doesn't care about me. He ignores me, a lot. With his drinking problem." Half true. Rich's dad did have a drinking problem, and sometimes ignored him. When his dad wasn't ignoring him...it doesn't end well. 

"I know how that feels, not the drinking thing, but the...parents not caring about you part. My parents have been gone for awhile now. Not like they're ever coming back," Jake admitted. That got...personal. Rich might as well talk about the phone call.

Rich felt the silence in the room after Jake had spoke. He took a small breath and had his full attention on Jake. "So, I have my brother Adrian, right? He's...great. He called because he was getting worried about me and my dad. And it was weird, since in all these loops, Adrian never called before. So I sort of just, questioned why he was worried about this now, why he didn't bother to visit me since school started, why he just..._left _me with my father."

The air in the room was tense after Rich spoke, he could sense that. Jake put out his hand out, an offer for Rich to hold it. "If you really need it. The offers stands." Rich stared at Jake's hand. And he took it.

"So, Adrian explained that college had been really holding him back from seeing me. Along with the countless jobs he's doing just so he can buy an apartment...so I could live with him. So...we talked some more, although, I'm still mad at him. I just...wished he visited me more before the loop? That would have been nice." Rich concluded, he thought about how strange it was that Adrian called him, was the loop...breaking?

Rich felt Jake's hand still wrapped around his own, despite Rich finishing his explanation. He wished he could stay like this with Jake. 

"I understand how you feel. With your brother that is," Jake said. Rich glanced over at him, and continued to show his attention to Jake deeply. "My parents...they sent me a letter on the day before the loop. They asked...how I was? I didn't tell anyone about the letter because...I ripped it apart once I saw who it was from. I know they only sent it because they wanted to seem like good parents. They started with...the you know what name. And I just, ripped it."

The boys didn't say anything else, they just took glances at each other. Rich still felt the warmth of Jake's hand, and snatched his hand back. "We were um, holding hands too long. So I pulled away. Since we're...not dating or anything." Rich's cheeks went hot as he spoke, he noticed Jake looked a bit...flustered? Nah. It was probably just embarrassment. Besides, Jake said he didn't like Rich in the beginning of the loops. _But that was before you knew each other, _the voice in his head said. 

"It just felt- um, I just forgot to let go," Jake paused, and his eyes had their attention on Rich. "Your hand, that is." Rich knew Jake was trying to cover up the awkward silence that was flooding the room, it wasn't working. At all. Jake's eyes shined. "Oh! I remembered the other reason why we were coming up here. How the hell are we gonna get out of this stupid loop?"

Rich felt his mind explode with new ideas on how to escape, he jumped up and gave a huge grin. "I have plenty of ideas! Uh, like, maybe we could escape Groundhog Day style? With the whole, lovey dovey thing and boom we're out!"

Jake shook his head. "Christine and Jeremy kissed, a lot, also, there's like, nine people in this loop. So that couldn't work."

"Good point," Rich grumbled, and he tried to think more. Not anything to go off of except movies and maybe the 1995 incident. But they didn't know much about that incident in the first place.

Rich and Jake bounced ideas off each other, but nothing seemed to fit right with their situation. Curse those stupid movies that had loops. They weren't helping in the slightest bit.

After maybe 20 minutes, the idea finally hit him. Rich's eyes lit up, they glimmered, and he felt the idea burst out of him. "What if we went into that science lab, you know which one I'm talking about, the one near the elementary, and we steal some stuff, and then we go into the school gym, at night probably, like in the TV show Stranger Things, and we entered it's own dimension? Like, we can't hurt it here...maybe? We'll have to see if we can hurt in our own dimension. But maybe we can hurt it when we're at the place where the Squip lives! We could get some weapons and just...pow pow!" 

How exactly did that all come to him? It just...did. Like, something...or someone just whispered in his ears what he had to do. Rich continued to ramble, "We have to make sure it stays dead though. We can't just leave it. We have to destroy it into bloody pieces!" Rich couldn't tell how Jake felt about this, but, he thought Jake was agreeing with his idea.

"Hm...well, first off that science lab is SQ Inc, it makes all the tech for school. They probably don't have a machine to break into another dimensions. But uh, we could go into there with Michael! He can steal one of his moms keycards to get us inside! One of his moms works there I think. It'll be like an action movie!" Jake exclaimed, yes, actually exclaimed. Only at the end bit. 

It was decided with Jake's information. After this loop, he and Jake (maybe Michael too), would all break into SQ Inc, and steal some equipment. _Sure, _they might get caught, but if they do, the loop will reset. Of course, there was one flaw in the plan. The machine wouldn't stay put, it would reset once they died. 

Jake said they would worry about it later. Along with how they were even gonna get it into the school, how they were gonna get it into the school at night, all that fun stuff. 

Now the two boys were going downstairs, discussing their plans. Rich glanced at Michael, he didn't know him well, but he and Jake were going to ask Michael together for the keycard (and if he would come along). 

The Filipino boy was actually scrolling through his phone, a melancholy expression planted on his face. Rich was gonna speak with Jake about it, but he already left Rich's side and was already on the couch in between Chloe and Brooke. 

Another look around the room. No Dustin. He must have left when Rich went upstairs. An understandable choice, but Rich would have to talk with him at school next loop. 

Seemed like there was no other choice. Jake would come later, he had to. He should be the one to ask Michael about the keycard, not Rich. Rich ambled for Michael, and took his place in the empty spot beside him. Michael took immediate notice to Rich, but continued scrolling through his phone.

Rich took a tiny breath, he brushed the hair out of his eyes. "What's that face for? You're kinda just, well, scrolling through your phone looking like someone called you a loser." Michael's clicked his phone off and put it beside him.

"It's stupid, for the least. Family stuff...crush things. Boring, stupid, nobody-cares-about-shit stuff," Michael muttered, his eyes looking dull. Michael's finger's brushed against his phone and gave Rich a look. "You know what I mean by crush, right? I mean, I talked about him while driving to Jake's house."

It didn't exactly click for Rich at first, but after forcing his brain to remember some more, he gave a reply, "Oh! You mean Kevin, the cross country dude! I didn't really, listen? Sorry?" 

Michael shrugged it off. "Doesn't matter. Not like I'll be with him because of the damned loop. It's just, seeing Christine and Jeremy happy...makes me sad. I love that Jeremy found someone, I do, but...loop problems. I don't really find anyone in this group, no offense, as boyfriend material, no offense. You guys are still hot, but I don't exactly want you. I want-"

"You want Kevin," Rich cut Michael off, with no intention of doing so. Michael didn't mind, just gave Rich a tiny nod. 

"Sorry to dump this on you, Jenna doesn't exactly listen. We're close friends, for sure, but...we just talk about music, she rants about Chloe or Brooke, but I barely rant. I don't know why, I don't know why I can't open up to her. I just feel like-"

Rich finished Michael's sentence once more. "She'll spread it? She'll destroy your trust with any sensitive information you have?"

Rich expected anything but Michael laughing. "How do you know what I'm gonna say? You some psychic?" Rich just shrugged again, but gave no response to Michael. _Wait, right, the keycard. _

Rich knew he shouldn't be the one to ask, but, the words just slipped out of his mouth. "So, Jake and I want to break into your mom's workplace tomorrow night, can we have your mom's keycard?" 

"Wait, are you asking me to _steal _from a Spanish mother? She's gonna fucking murder me!" Michael screeched, attracting the attention of Christine and Jeremy who happened to be sitting by the couch. 

Jeremy barely looked up from his phone. "He's right. Once I stole five bucks from her and she chased me around with a wooden spoon. I'm practically part of the family, so she could chase me with it."

Michael gave a thumbs up to Jeremy's statement. "See? Death. Death will happen."

Rich clicked his tongue. "Ah, ah, ah, you're forgetting that we're in a loop. And once we break in...we'll die and she'll never know. Look, we'll just go in, snoop around, go through computers, cool things like that."

He analyzed Michael as he (Michael) thought about it, now Rich had no idea what Michael could have been thinking, but it was clear what he thought once Michael finally said something. "Alright, I'll give you the keycard. But, _only, _if I'm allowed to come along. I don't think I've ever been to mom's workplace." 

Rich felt his stomach do a somersault, Michael would be coming along with him and Jake. Everything seemed to be going into place. They would get out of the loop in no time. 

Well, if their plan even worked. But, they needed to kill that...thing. And they had to get to wherever it lived. That dimension.

…

Rich had been there before, hadn't he? That faceless blob thing...that stupid faceless Oozer thing. 

It showed up again at the library. Told him it was the end soon. Souls. Almost took him. 

What was with this thing trying to get him first? 

"Rich, Richie, buddy, you zoned out, again. Are you...good, man?" 

Rich stared at Michael, and just let out a nod. "I'm fine. I just...thought about something," Rich glanced over at Jake. A spark lit into his eyes. "I have to go out with Jake. Now." 

"Like, on a date?"

"No, shut up. I have an idea on how to learn about this shitty creature," Rich said, with a serious tone. It could work. It had to work. If they just. Tried at the very least. 

Rich marched over to Jake tugged his sleeve. "Jake, I need to..." Rich paused. "Talk with me. About...er," What was something Rich actually wanted to talk about? Fuck it. "About a plan I have. And I only want you involved with it. Because you're strong, and smart. Dustin is too but...he's not here. So can you please help me?" 

Jake eyed Rich, he had a questioning look on his face. "Er, okay? Where do we need to go? Upstairs?"

Rich clutched Jake's sleeve, maybe just a bit tight. "Menlo Park Mall. You choose which restaurant, we're staying until...we die. I'll explain the details once we get there, I promise."

He could feel the stares he was getting from Chloe and Brooke, who sat beside Jake. Jake shrugged, and got up from the sofa, heading to grab his coat. "You gotta coat to wear, Rich?"

Rich shook his head. "What's the point in having a coat if you'll die?" It was meant to be a joke, but Rich didn't hear the laughs. 

Michael, Jeremy, and Christine seemed to be the only people who waved goodbye. At least they tolerate, maybe even like Rich. Well, Rich guessed Michael at least liked him.

Jake held open the door as Rich headed out, he waited outside Jake's car. His hands were frigid, a light pink spread from his palms to his fingertips. When Jake closed the door behind him, having the car keys in his hands, he rushed over and gave Rich a small smile. 

"Ya ready?" 

"Ready."

…

…

…

Rich's eyes fixed upon the person who sat across the table. He wouldn't even have thought about eating at Sbarro's with Middleborough's most popular junior, possibly even student due to him being in almost all the clubs in school, Jake Dillinger.  
Rich glanced back at his food, despite all odds, here Rich was, picking at his food on his plate, he wasn't hungry in the first place. Jake on the otherhand was gobbling down the food on his plate, there was two massive bowls of spaghetti, carbs, Jake had said. Jake needed the carb.   
According to Jake, Sbarro's was his favorite place in the whole universe, one of them at least. Something about a strong connection. It meaning something important to him.   
"So what did you wanna talk about? You said you'd tell me the details once we got here."  
Rich looked back up from his food, and gazed thoughtfully before replying, "You know how I....went into the Squip's dimension? And how it tried to kill me? Well, what if it tried to attack again? Tonight. And what if there was two people instead of me? Like...we die together."  
Jake looked like he was in thought, and responded, "I mean, that could work? Who knows, but, how exactly are we gonna die together at the same time?"  
Crap.  
There's the issue in Rich's idea. He felt his face turn into a bright, big, red cherry, his cheeks showing the most of it. "You're right. It's stupid...so stupid. My idea got taken down by common sense.   
Jake sputtered out words. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait- I didn't say it was stupid! I just had a question. But...I see what you mean."  
Rich stared at his food more. Now what would the two talk about? That was Rich's key topic and now it just poofed. Rich finally took a bite out of pizza and held it in the air.  
"So, um, how does it look like?" Jake asked, twirling his spaghetti around a fork. Rich's pupils darted up at Jake and thought about what he had seen.  
"It's...well, it was really frickin' tall. And it looked like a blob. Weirdest part was that it said my mom's last name was Goranski, which makes no sense with fact that my dad wouldn't let his last name die. Maybe he was just that nice before? You know...before she...died," Rich trailed off. The air was thick with the awkwardness of Rich's words.   
"Sorry about the um...dead mom. If you mentioned it before, then sorry I forgot. Forgetful person alert, hah," Jake said, and he put down the fork and pushed his plate away. "Let's go kill some time. We could go to the clothing store? And buy clothes."  
Rich almost gagged. "Buying new clothes that aren't hoodies or sweats? No thank you, no thank you. How about we go to Gamestop instead? Everyone likes Gamestop!"  
"Let's just go to both, not like it'll make a difference, we're gonna die anyway."  
After they both threw away their food, Rich and Jake roamed the mall, Jake was already guiding Rich through the mall. And no, they never ended up going to GameStop or a clothing store. Instead they went to the movies and watched Frozen 2, which was still in theatres.  
They were those people who talked throughout the entire movie, but not just about the movie itself.   
Other than the movie, they went to the Lush Store, Build A Bear Workshop, random stores that they had no idea what they were for, all sorts of fun things. Rich watched the clock slowly tick down.  
8PM  
9PM  
…  
10:30PM.  
Jake and Rich both shared a look when it hit 10:30, they both knew they usually never died right when it hit 10, but when it hit 10:30...that's when the tension came in.  
"Rich, how do you feel about dying?"  
Jake popped the question out of nowhere, his hands shoved in his jacket, his eyes not looking at Rich.   
Rich eyed the moon above them, high in the sky. "I...don't know. Sometimes I start to panic over it, sometimes I just don't care. Sometimes...I wonder if I should just...do it myself?'  
Silence. Goddammit Rich, you idiot.  
"Sometimes I feel the same. I mean, would the loop just end if you did it yourself? But, the thought only crossed my mind a few times."   
A few times for Jake. Understandable. That thought had crossed Rich's mind too many times to count.   
Rich's mouth started to move before thinking, changing the subject quickly to space.   
Creak.  
Rich felt himself getting shoved down to the ground by Jake Dillinger himself. Jake Dillinger was on top of him on the parking lot. The fucking parking lot.  
"Jake! What the hell-"  
Jake just let out a huge grin. "Time to see if your theory is true."  
Thud. Smash. Crash.  
…  
Blackness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know that moment when you haven't updated in a month hahahahah i'm so sorry, but here, have this chapter, get ready for our favorite chaotic trio of rich, jake, and Michael to break into a building in two chapters


	10. Chapter Ten: Jake

* * *

Some would say Jake was crazy to throw himself on top of Rich when he noticed something fall from the roof of a mall. And shove them both directly under. While they were pressed against each other. And they're completely right.

The Squip couldn't pass an opportunity to get two souls in one, right? And it was a chance to bond with Rich. Nothing like dying together at the exact same time, a beautiful bonding experience for two. Still hurt like a motherfucker.

Jake opened his eyes to nothing. Blackness. Sticky floor. TV static? That's...weird. Jake put his hands on the ground to help him stand up, his eyes glanced around for Rich. He found the boy in particular to be on his left, funny how he didn't notice him before. 

Rich's eyes remained closed for awhile, Jake didn't exactly know what to do so he sat in front of him. And stared at him. He didn't know how long he just sat and watched Rich, a few minutes, a few hours, who knows, but soon enough, Rich's eyes shot open. Jake's eyes and Rich's eyes stared into each other for a split second.

"_Jake! _What the fu- you scared me! Why were you infront of me? Where the hell are we?" Rich screeched, scrambling away from Jake. Rich's hand flinched away from the floor, and he used Jake to help him stand up. "Sticky floor...?"

_Great observation, Sherlock. _Jake shoved his hands in his jacket and shrugged. "Weird, right? I mean, I can't see but I can...see. Does that make sense?" Rich didn't reply, he was busy staring at everything _but _Jake. 

A pale green seemed to be around Rich now that Jake thought about it, sort of like....his soul was seen in this place. As a guide. Jake brushed it off, knowing he could tell Rich after, that wasn't important. 

The silence between them was thick, Jake tried to dig his hands into his pockets further. "So, is it like, just gonna show up? The Squip I mean."

As if on cue, Jake's eyes noticed a...figure of some sort, looming over them both. Claws like a bear. Height seemed to go on forever. When Jake attempted to make out a face, he couldn't make out anything. 

It was a monster.

"Looks like the son of Selene came back, with a friend! Oh, how lovely, you came back with the nephew of Josiah? Fantastic."

_Josiah?_ That...that was Jake's uncle's name before he passed away. 

Jake cleared his throat and stared up at the towering beast. "Hey shit-face! Watch your fucking mouth! That's my friend you happen to be talking to if you don't mind, and you're also talking to me but that doesn't matter. Just shut your mouth!" 

The beast grew closer to Jake. His feet were planted to the ground. It was right in front of him. Still stuck. Leaned down right in Jake's face. Couldn't move at all. 

"Dillinger, shut your pathetic mouth. You were almost as bad as the Goranskis. Annoying like them. Disgusting."

Jake swallowed back the words that wanted to jump out of his mouth, but he kept it shut.

The beast, despite it not having a face, still had a _stupid _tone in it's voice. "Wanna hear a fun fact? Your mother was shit to your uncle. You see, he was part of the loop before this one. Your mother was one of the ways I managed to snatch his soul. Probably gonna be how I'll get you, considering she left you."

Jake's ears rang, and his eyes decided to pay attention to his shoes more than the monster.

"Shut it! Don't talk shit about his parents! Or I'll burn you to the ground!" 

Jake glanced at Rich, it was Rich who screamed those words. Jake felt himself slip out a timid smile. Rich looked like he was about to ram himself into the monster, like a bull, he looked like a bull. Ready to charge. 

The beast began to shift, it's form changing to look more humanoid, not into any particular gender, just to look like a human. It's eyes began to analyze Rich, before it paced right over in front of Rich. "How about _you _shut your mouth? You've been doing it since kindergarten, why speak now?"

Rich shrunk a bit, and didn't say anything back. Jake felt his throat burn, and gave the creature a glare. "You shut up!" Jake's fist collided with the Squip's chest, it was knocked back by a foot. But it didn't seem like it was harmed in any way.

It cackled. "You idiot, you can't harm me here. In fact, I'm practically invincible, apart from..." It fixed his eyes upon Rich. "Not like you'll find out anyway. The only person who knows is gone for good."

It started to change it's form once again, no longer humanoid, it's form was the height of Middleborough High School, it turned into a wormlike creature, with sharp spikes and pointy teeth, and no eyes.

Jake felt sick just looking at it, he grabbed onto Rich's hand, who looked scared for his life. He had a right reason to look frightened, and he had the right reason to, this thing just kept growing bigger and bigger by the second.

As the creature grew in size, Jake thought about what it meant by 'the only person is gone for good.'. And why did it stare at Rich? Did it connect to Rich? Maybe it was implying to Rich's mom? She's dead, and related to Rich. That seemed to be Jake's best bet of a guess. 

When it finished growing in size, Jake's heart dropped, and his throat burned again. The bad type of burning. The type that was telling you that you were about to cry very soon. 

"Say goodbye to those pathetic little souls of yours. They're _mine._" 

Jake squeezed Rich's hand tighter and screamed out at the monster, "Just leave us alone!"

…

Everything seemed to grow brighter.

Until there was nothing but a shimmering glow of white.

* * *

Golden light flooded in through the window and onto Jake. He looked around and noticed he was in his bedroom again, with the day being December 20th, 2019, as usual. Jake got up from bed, and looked out the window. He knew it was around 6 in the morning, and the night still took over the skies due to it being winter time. 

Jake moved aside from the window and stared at his closet, he knew he was skipping school today, so if he really wanted, he could sleep in. But Jake didn't want to just sleep or wander around the house aimlessly. So the boy decided he would go to Michael's house instead, because then Michael wouldn't have to deal with picking Jake up, and they could just talk like bros do.

After changing, he climbed down the stairs, and headed into the kitchen, starting to prepare two waffles in the toaster. As he waited for his food, Jake scrolled through Twitter, looking at some of the other popular kids (that didn't consist of Jenna, Brooke, Chloe, and him) tweets.

Most of them consisted of what they were gonna do over the winter break, some of them were having parties, others were going out of the country, some stayed at home, etc. Jake noticed his tweet from yesterday, what seemed to be almost an eternity ago when he had sent the tweet.

[Jakey D ]

[(@jake_e_dillinger) ]

[totally having a party every night this winter break :0 ]

[9:38PM- 19 Dec 2019 ]

[14 29 117 ]

Jake sighed and clicked off of Twitter, if only past Jake knew he would never get those parties. Although, Jake knew the real reasoning behind the tweet. It was to fill up the house with noise, and get rid of the loneliness that was confided in the house. It even followed Jake wherever he went. It didn't matter where he was, it'd be there. He could be surrounded by dozens of people, but still feel alone.

The sound of the toaster alerted Jake that the waffles had popped out. He picked them out, feeling the slight burn on his fingertips due to it just coming out the toaster. He bit the two waffles in his mouth as he slipped his phone into his pocket, grabbing his coat from a chair. As Jake zipped up his coat, his mind wandered off to his friends. That led to Jake thinking about Rich.

Despite their differences, they were friends, at least Jake thought so. He thought about when Rich had fell on top of him on that very first loop. For many loops, Rich had seemed to try and avoid Jake whenever the time for the interaction showed up. Few times though, Rich would show up on purpose, usually when he seemed to be having a bad day in the background. That first interaction in the first loop had always seemed to stick with Jake for some strange reason.

_ "The Jake Dillinger who breaks a girl's heart every week.__"_

_ "Guess this is your first time breaking a boy's heart, huh?"_

_ "You won't even remember me in a week's time."_

_ "I'll just be another one of those people you destroyed, won't I?"_

Jake frowned and thought about each line Rich had said even more. People didn't...see Jake like that, right? After all, Jake had been single when the loop started for almost two months. As Jake tried to remember all his exes, his blood ran cold.

He couldn't remember about four of their names. There was a stinging feeling in his chest, and what felt like a lump in Jake's throat. Now if anything, Jake wasn't a name person, but he _dated_ these people, kissed them, made out with them, the whole ordeal. But why couldn't he remember their names?

_Okay Jake, calm down, you can remember their names. Let's start with the tan girl that had dark hair. _

But he couldn't remember. God, was Jake a bad person? He can't remember the fucking name of somebody he dated. That's something a bad person would do. A good person doesn't do the shit Jake had done.

Jake grabbed his keys from the table, and quickly went outside and into his car. Who cared if Jake wasn't stable enough to drive? All Jake knew was that he needed somebody, he needed that someone now. And it would be Michael. 

Michael was a good person, he was better than most people, he does some shitty things, maybe a bit petty, but other than that, Michael was good. Thank god that there wasn't bad traffic currently, and the way to Michael's house wasn't a popular route to go through. Even if Jake died, there was always the loop. He would just come back. 

The drive passed by quickly, and Jake soon arrived in front of Michael's house. He got out his car, parked on the side of the driveway, and knocked on Michael's door quickly.

A very groggy looking Michael opened the door, rubbing his eyes, he looked like he just woke up. Michael's eyes sparked in confusion when he finally realized that Jake was in front of him.

"Jake? We're not meeting until 7PM tonight-"

The words jumped out of Jake's mouth, he couldn't keep them in any longer. "Am I a bad person?"

Michael blinked and his face clicked in realization. "...how about you come inside, alright? We can talk there."

The taller boy out of the two nodded, and shuffled inside as he took off his coat placing it on a coat rack. It seemed like it was just Michael, despite it being around 6:45AM, Jake took another quick look around before tapping Michael's shoulder.

"Where are your moms?" Jake questioned, pointing lightly at an empty coffee mug placed on the kitchen table. 

Michael sighed, and stared out the window. "They already left for work about a half hour ago."

Jake bit his upper lip as he sat down on the couch, with Michael sitting down beside him, patting his shoulder. Despite the waffles from before already being eaten, his stomach growled, which the boy with glasses took notice of.

"You need something to eat? Your friend growled," Michael joked, as he let out a bright smile.

_Accept the damn food and stop staring like an idiot. _

"Oh, uh, sure. Just give me a slice of bread or something, I had breakfast already," Jake replied, and he watched Michael get off the couch again, and head into the kitchen. From the couch, he could still see Michael, as there was a hole in the wall between the living room and kitchen. 

As soon as Michael came back with the bread, Jake snatched it, before gobbling it all up.

Michael raised an eyebrow at Jake. "Alright, now explain why you came to my house at almost 7 in the morning, not like I was heading to school this loop anyway. I know you asked something like, am I a bad person, and you're not, but explain your reasoning."

Jake took a deep breath, he could already feel his throat start to hurt again as he spoke. "Do you know how before...like...the first year in the loop, I had this confrontation with Rich. You know, he would accidently bump into me or some shit, and almost fall on top of me. And, well, he said some...things. I didn't pay much attention to them before, but now...he was right."

"What kind of things?"

"Things like, I destroyed people's lives, break people's hearts, stuff like that. I mean, I can't remember _four _of my girlfriends names. Granted, they were during middle school, and that doesn't exactly count.

Michael's face scrunched up in disgust. "Yuck, dating in middle school? Unless you honestly care about them and have a completely healthy relationship, that should be illegal. Everyone knows most of the time it happened because they wanted to act older."

Jake rolled his eyes lightly. "Yeah, that's why I did it. I still can't help but feel like...sobbing my eyes out about it. They must have thought I cared. But now I can't even remember their names."

The Filipino's hand patted Jake's shoulder again. "My fine, extracircular friend-"

"That was _one _time!"

"Shut up, just know that you aren't a life destroyer. Or a heartbreaker. Fuck what Rich said about you. Even if he was angry, it didn't give him the right to be a little shit," Michael said, as his eyes glistened 

"I guess..." Jake muttered, before slouching on the couch and staring at the reflection the TV was giving off. Reflection was such a strange thing if you thought about it. It's one of the only ways to ever see how you look, and it was the only way before cameras, as paintings didn't count to be honest.

Michael leaped off the couch, and patted the spot beside him. "Now I know just the thing to cheer you up before we break into a lab. Apocalypse of the Damned. It's something Jeremy and I like to play, but there's two save files left. One of which will be for you and me. Now get down here."

Jake plopped himself next to Michael, and watched as the TV burst into little circles and let out a blaring noise. The _PS2 startup noise. _

"Damn, this console is old. And it still works?" Jake asked, as Michael handed him a controller, it was a bright blue. 

"Yeah it works. Now, luckily for you, I had a spare controller lying around. And it even fits your soul color! Just, don't mix it up with Jeremy's, but I doubt you will due to all the stickers and extra things Jeremy does with his."

Jake tapped the buttons on his controller fiddling with some of them, before his eyes flicked up to the screen when the opening music played. The words Apocalypse of the Damned flooded on the screen, and Michael, being player one, made a new game.

For the next few hours, all they did was play this 80s game Michal got off of Ebay, they only made it to level three, before giving up. The clock read 2:05PM, 20 minutes till school ended. _What if..._

"Yo Michael, wanna pick Rich up from school? It's a lot better than that bicycle he uses. And, it means avoiding using too much gas," Jake suggested, raising his hand as if he were in school.

Michael put his hand against his chin and hummed. "Maybe, depends how I feel. Maybe if you give me a whole box of fruit snacks next loop."

"Goddammit! Sure, whatever, have at it. Take them all."

Another bright smile from Michael Mell, he grabbed his keys from the kitchen and opened the door. "Then let's get going."

* * *

The drive to school was pretty bland, the usual New Jersey setting could be seen from the window, just trees, and open fields, that was all. When the car pulled up in the parking lot, they sped down the road and right in front of Rich who just happened to be getting his bike off the rack.

Michael rolled down the window. "Sup, loser. We decided to pick you up to save gas money even though we don't even need that shit anymore!"

Rich shook his head. "You're joking, right? You're the people in the car that nearly killed eight people as you sped down the road?"

Michael put his hand out the window and patted Rich's head lightly. "Don't be such a buzzkill and get in the car. And put that bicycle in the back.

"The trunk is closed you-"

Michael clicked a small button on his keys, causing the trunk door to slam open, which caused Rich to screech.

"Jesus fucking Christ okay! I'll put my bike in the trunk!"

After the bicycle had been put away, Rich sat in the back, acting like he was about to have the worst day of his life, which could be true since they're trespassing a work building. 

Rich had his arms crossed. "So, let me get this straight, when it's 7:15, we leave to break and enter, when we get there at 7:30, we just...enter by using the card? That's the whole big plan to break the law?" 

"We're cutting the gate actually. With some wire cutter thingies, it'll be awesome!"

"More like horrible. I thought this plan would be better, Mell."

An awkward 10 minutes passed with the three of them in the car, by the time they got to Michael's house, Rich seemed only semi-okay with their current plan.

"Just saying, this will end miserably, by a 87% chance," Rich said, now having a seat on the carpet. 

"Ah! You said 100% back in the car!" Michael pointed out.

Another groan from Richard Goranski.

The three of them bickered till 7:15, where Michael was the one who noticed the time and cleared his throat.

"You guys ready?"

"Ready."

"Yeah, ready to fail."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yay the next chapter is gonna be exciting y'all
> 
> as for this chapter, who knows how to end things at this point, we just have to yeet with it, you know?
> 
> Also, evil people, be like the squip, be a little bitch and a horrible but still say the right name and pronouns whoo


	11. Chapter Eleven: Rich

The time was exactly 8:02PM when Michael's PT Cruiser pulled up to the building SQ Inc, with the lights blaring at the lab that stood in front of the three. Rich checked his messenger bag to make sure he had everything he would need to break into a government facility. Or. At least he thought it was a government facility. What can Rich say? He loved some scary mystery vibes to it. Government facility happens to be a mysterious word. 

Items in Rich's bag included:

  * a flashlight
  * some matches incase the flashlight dies
  * some Latin papers from Dustin's attic
  * a screwdriver
  * his phone
  * some photos 
  * a gun

…

Don't ask about where Rich got the gun from. But there's nothing to worry about it. Rich knew how to shoot a gun long before the loops had even started. 

Michael took his hands off the steering wheel, and opened the car door. "C'mon guys, we're gonna die in 2 hours, depends on what time we die during the 10-11PM period." Rich gave Michael a small nod and opened up the door, taking a step to the ground outside.

It smelled of fresh grass as if it had been freshly cut, which is strange since Michael had parked behind the building. In the forest. Not in the parking lot. Maybe the staff just wanted to cut the grass in the forest.

A cold breeze flew by the three as they stood outside the car, the moon shined bright above them, watching them, waiting for them to do something. 

Jake took out a spray paint can from his bag and glanced at Michael. "Time to take out your wire cutters and put them to use. Unless you would rather jump the fence?" 

Michael took Jake's words into thought. "You're right. We should jump it instead. We'll save these wire cutters for something else. There's still at least a dozen people inside at this time."

"_Two dozen? _" Rich shouted with a whisper in his tone. "You said it would be completely abandoned!"

Michael waved his hand in Rich's direction. "Calm down, the people here are almost all packed in one room across the building. The only trouble we'll have is with the security, that's why I asked Jake to bring that spray paint. We need him to spray paint the security camera by the wall, or...whoever decides to jump the fence."

Rich began to analyze the fence, approaching it slowly and feeling the metal. It had to be at least nine feet. But the holes were too small. Too small of holes for Jake or Michael's feet.

His eyes glanced down at his shoes, and he slid one through one of the holes.

But big enough for his own feet.

"Hand me the spray paint. I'll climb it."

Michael and Jake's attention went over to Rich, with Michael scrunching his nose. "Sorry Rich, but you don't exactly...look like you can climb it."

"Well the holes aren't big enough for both of your fucking feet. Now give me the spray paint."

Jake quickly handed Rich the spray paint, which he tucked into his hoodie pocket. Rich stared at the fence some more, until he began to climb over it.

The climb wasn't that long, but apparently Rich wasn't holding onto the gate tight enough. And he felt himself spiral down onto the dirt, face flat. His face throbbed in pain.

Rich rubbed his cheeks. "Ow! Ow ow ow ow!" He wiped his nose, only to find blood on his sleeve. That fall had not only caused him to have his face burn in pain, but Rich got a lovely nosebleed as well. Fantastic. Awesome. Incredible.

The noise rattling came from the other side of the fence as Rich continued to stay on the ground. "Rich, are you okay?" Jake asked, a mild tone of concern hinted in his tone. 

Rich couldn't help rolling his eyes. "Yes Jake, I'm fine. My nose is bleeding and I'm still okay to go!" Rich got up and dusted off the dirt on his pants and took out the spray paint with his right hand. 

The only sound that could be heard as Rich went over to the security camera was the sound of some birds deep in the forest. One click of the can and the security camera was covered with a haze of black paint. To the guard operating the security cameras, it just looked like it was too dark to see anything. 

A nod was given to Jake and Michael, and the fence was immediately snapped open in half, where Jake and Michael slid into the area. Michael grabbed something from his pocket, a small, thin, and looked oddly luminescent card. The words along it said 'Mell', bold letters and capitalized. 

"This should be quick enough, we're looking for like...a machine, right?" Michael asked as he slid the card against the card reader 

A bright green reflected off Rich's glasses. "Pretty much. Something that looks like it'll help us get into another dimension at least."

Michael almost laughed. "Ah yes, we're gonna find a machine that'll take us into another dimension at a fucking school tech pla-"

The doors to the building opened swiftly, and the trio was met with a dark hallway and dim lights. If one would look inside, they could barely see the end of the hallway, even if they squinted. 

Rich was the first to take a step into the hall, it felt as if he just left one world and entered another. It smelled of chemicals, it almost made Rich gag when he took a breath in the hall. Correction: He did gag and cough.

Jake was by his side in a few seconds, patting his back. "Richie, you alright there? And what the hell is that smell?"

"The smell," Rich sputtered out, "It's the smell making me gag."

Michael took a sniff of the air and his face almost seemed to turn green. "Oh _god, _it smells like shit in here."

The smell was irritating, of course, but they couldn't let something like a smell stop them from trying to find something to stop the Squip. Rich took a quick look down the hall, there seemed to be a turn at the end of it.

"C'mon, we gotta do this quickly before it turns 10PM, or we're screwed. Completely fucked, even," Rich said, before going down the hall. He heard Michael and Jake behind him, at least he thought it was Jake and Michael. 

A tap on the shoulder got Rich's attention. He spun around and was met with Jake, pointing at a door. Pointing at the sign on the door. The words spelled out 'SECURITY'.

"If we get access to the security, we figure out where to go," Jake whispered, his eyes focused on the doorknob.

Michael shook his head. "Jake, we know for a fact someone's in there we'll have to-"

"Fight them? Don't worry about that. I've gotten into a few fights, how about you, Michael? Rich?"

Rich didn't hear what Michael had to say, as Jake's words stuck in Rich's head.

_A few fights._

Yeah, Rich had been more in more than a few fights. Well, if you count a fight as getting the shit beaten out of you without really fighting back. If you count a fight as having your own father, just, hurt you.

Not that Rich had ever thrown a punch. Well, maybe once or twice. Back when Rich was bold. When he actually tried.

Then yes, Rich had been in many fights. 

Jake snapped his fingers in front of Rich's face. "Richie. Have you been in a fight?"

"Yes."

The other two waited for Rich to elaborate. He didn't.

"Did...you win them?"

"No."

Jake bit his lip, and grabbed the doorknob. "Let's just, knock the guard out, okay?"

Rich only gave a nod to Jake, and he tried to shake off the numbness he felt in his chest. He didn't like to think about his dad. "Oh, uh, okay."

The door was thrown open by Jake, and a middle-aged man sat in front of them looking through the security cameras. Rich watched as Jake threw a punch at the security guard, right for the head.

Michael somehow managed to kick the guard in the stomach, knocking the guard to the floor. Jake and Michael threw a few more punches, until it looked like the guard was under a deep sleep.

"He looks...sorta dead," Rich commented, lightly tapping the guard's head with his foot.

Jake sat in the guard's seat, clicking through the cameras. "Well, he isn't dead. But I'm sure he'll wake up in a few minutes. So you two, get rid of his radios and what not and put him in a closet."

Rich squinted at the unconscious body, but figured it was better than having him wake up and losing all their progress. "C'mon, Michael. Let's go find a closet to stuff him into."

A reply was given back to Rich with only Michael's eyes, they both struggled to pick up the guard (what was he, like, 260 pounds?). When they finally did, they both went down the barely lit hallway.

Only the sound of hushed whispers and machines were heard, the whispers made Rich's stomach churn. Where exactly were those whispers coming from? Michael was wiggling another doorknob, when it opened, it revealed a small janitor's closet. The only things being kept there at the moment were a few brooms and a bucket. 

"It's good enough," Michael said, and started taking the walkie talkies of the guard. Rich did the same, but took off the ear piece he wore, and stomped onto it for safe measure. 

After they finished with that, they locked the door, and just, stared at it.

"What if he calls for help?" Rich asked, his heart beginning to pound at a fast rate.

"He won't. He knows better than to start screaming in a lab for help," Michael replied, and grabbed Rich's hand. "Now let's go back to Jake. I'm sure he found something while we were away."

Rich took out his flashlight (which he just remembered he had, he was such an idiot) and flicked it on, lighting up the hall. "Alright...alright, we just have to find the room that says security. Okay....okay."

Eery noises returned again, the whispers, the machines. All back as they walked through the hall. Rich shined the light on a door which only had the words 'Mell.' Michael stared at the door. Rich knew that look in his eye too well. Curiosity. 

"Michael, we can't go there. At least not without Jake."

"It's my mom's office. Both of them most likely."

"Michael-"

"I...I have to go in."

Michael's hand slipped out of Rich's and all he could do was follow behind Michael. 

"Let's just do this quickly...alright?"

Michael swiped the card against the scanner. Green.

The door opened mechanically, and they both entered the office. 

What they both expected was probably something like two desks, some papers, maybe even some old computer scraps. Instead they found something much more strange. 

Two desks were opposite of each other, piles of journals above them. The floor was so clean it was reflective. Rich noticed a photo of Michael on both desks. And in the middle, was a machine. It had a rectangular base, and a circle, almost eight feet tall, in the middle of said base. A keypad was attached to the machine, and a pile of notes.

While Michael looked through the desks, silent, Rich went over to the machine. He ran his fingers down the metal, feeling the frozenness, and pulled his fingers away to grab the notes. 

_The Final Entry_

_ it finally worked. The machine works. We will destroy whatever lurks inside _

_ the dimension. we will not let it destroy our son. we won't let it destroy more_

_ people. dimension code: 8a97Hx4r_

Rich blinked, and went through the other notes. They were all about the machine. They were all about...the loops. His eyes glanced to the floor, and he saw it. The book he took out the library the other loop. Another copy, of course, but it had the same title. It had various post-it notes sticking out the book.

This building wasn't for school tech. Sure, they made it, but it seemed to be for something else. Something that had to do with dimensions for the most part.

"Michael, what time is it?" Rich asked, stuffing the notes in his hoodie pocket. 

Without missing a beat, Michael answered, "9:34PM."

Rich grabbed Michael's hand this time. "We have to go back to Jake before it turns 10. Now c'mon, we have to share this information with him quickly."

The door was thrown open, and the hoodied boys both hurried out of there and back to the security room.

Now it didn't take them long to get back, but Jake seemed pissed when he looked over at them.

Jake's eyes narrowed at the two. "Now why the hell did it take you two so long to place an unconscious body? It can't be that hard to find a closet and shove the person in there!" 

Rich shoved the notes in Jake's hands. "Thanks to Michael's curiosity, we found something incredible. A machine. A dimension opener for sure, it'll help us get to the squip dimension. Michael's moms got their hands on a limited edition copy of a book I read in the library. It talks about the loops. His moms knew about the loops for who knows how long and built that machine to probably try and stop it from killing their boy."

Michael nodded. "He's right, I saw their journals on their desks. They...they've known about the loops since I was like, three. They've been working on this dimension opener thingy for more than a decade...maybe even almost two decades when you think about it."

A fire lit up in Jake's eyes. "Any way to defeat it in there?"

"Only theories, my moms are pretty damn smart and they seem solid. So at least we have a basic idea of what to do."

Jake let out a bright smile. "We just found our ticket out these fucking loops! This is gonna be great! Now we just...need a set date for when we pull this plan. And the exact plan for this."

"Two loops from now. Next loop we tell the others about our plan. And the loop after that...we're out this fucking shithole and back into reality!" Rich exclaimed, actually exclaimed. It wasn't like one of those second grade stories where they use exclaimed for every dialogue tag. Rich just, he couldn't stop himself. 

Jake covered Rich's mouth. "Shhh! They're gonna hear us! Alright, what's the plan?" 

A blush overtook Rich's cheeks and he shoved Jake's hand away. "I- um, y'know...stranger things style. Bring the machine to school, somehow, It's just, the school gym is big enough for that machine. And we can't sneak nine people into a lab. So...two people get that machine, somehow. Probably dismantle it and me and Dusty can rebuild it again. We open the portal, send two people in there, and we'll use one of those theories to kill the squip. Understand? And we make sure it's dead."

Both Jake and Michael gave a thumbs up, they looked determined. And Rich was determined as fuck to leave.

Although a question lingered in Rich's mind now that he thought about it.

What's gonna happen after the loops are done?

Will things go back to normal, with the losers being losers...the popular kids go back to being popular...Rich being invisible again. Jake being the most popular kid in the grade. Michael and Jeremy being the retro geeks (although now with Christine as a theatre geek by their side). Chloe and Brooke go back to being the most popular girls in school. Jenna Rolan going back to her old ways and gossiping everything she finds to get attention. And...would Dustin go back to just drug-dealing? 

Or would they all be friends? Would they all sit at the same lunch table, and leave behind the roles they had before the loops started. Would they all share a bond with the trauma they had gone through?

…it hurts, but Rich's mind told him the first option would most likely become true. And he hated it. Rich _wanted _to have friends still. Sure, they were iffy with him at the moment, but he would rather have that than being alone every single fucking day of his life. 

Rich would have to go through the shit he went through before. Except this time with the fear of waking up on December 20th again. He would always have to go home, and deal with his dad's shit. 

With no one.

At least if he had friends, Rich could smile at their texts as he sat against his locked bedroom door. 

The thought of his dad came back into Rich's mind, and he shook it out. Not now. He wasn't thinking of him now.

The sound of the whispers and machines came back, and Rich knew he was out of his head and back into the world. Michael and Jake were talking about...something. And the clock read 10:01PM.

At least this loop was better than most of them. At least he spent time with two people. 

Rich just hoped everyone in the loops would remain friends with each other once they were over.

…

The sound of the clock ticking was the last thing Rich heard as everything turned black for him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my hand slipped and I wrote more than half this chapter in two hours- that writer's motivation man, it showed up
> 
> okay this chapter was so fucking awesome to write I loved it so much, might be my second favorite out of all the chapters planned
> 
> next chapter is mostly just, telling the crew the plan, some sadness, jake being well,,,jake
> 
> hopefully the next chapter comes out soon ksjfdlsfj okay bye and I hope y'all have an incredible day/night


	12. Chapter Twelve: Jake

Jake couldn't take the wait anymore, he just needed it to be lunch time already. The clock seemed to ticking for eternity, which might have been a possibility due to the circumstance Jake is in at the moment.

As soon as Jake could leave that hellish class, lucky for him, it was gym class, so he could head right to the cafeteria after changing from the gym uniform (plus his varsity jacket) and back to his original outfit. 

The wait in the lunch line to get his cardboard pizza, a Pepsi, and a side of crispy fries, was shorter than usual, the lunch ladies didn't seem to give a damn when Jake headed the opposite direction of where the cafeteria was.

Some people gave Jake some confused glances as he headed for the library, noticeably, the swim team and the winter track team. He ignored them this time, or tried to, they didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered was going to the library and meeting the others there.

Jake slipped into the room filled with books of all kinds, and saw a couple of his friends, most likely waiting for the others. Jake nipped over to them, taking a seat next to Rich. 

Brooke pointed at Jake's tray. "You really eat that shit?"

"It's not that shitty. The fries are actually...pretty edible to enjoy. And the pizza's cheesiness makes up for the sauce that tastes like-"

"Like shit."

"Exactly."

Besides Brooke, the only other people there were Rich, Dustin, and Jenna. All four of them had bagged lunches, so no wonder they got here so early. 

_Well, _Rich didn't really have a bagged lunch. He was just taking food that nobody liked, so currently his lunch was a bowl of sliced tomatoes, a bag of Doritos, and two wrapped up bubblegum. 

"Nice lunch," Jake said in a casual tone, pointing at Rich's collection of food.

Rich looked at Jake and at his food and chuckled, "Aw, thanks. Dustin was gonna give me weed but I asked for his Doritos instead. I felt like doing this instead of buying the Mac and Cheese."

Jenna gagged and looked up from her phone. "You _LIKE_ the Mac and Cheese they serve here? Like, on purpose? That stuff's gross!"

"Better than the rotten groceries at home. My dad goes to the grocery store like, once there's no more beer in the house. Sometimes I have to get the groceries instead of him!" Rich laughed as he put a slice of tomato in his mouth.

Jake zoned out for a few seconds after Rich said that. Thinking about those words. Thinking about that loop where the two of them were at the park. 

He was brought back into the conversation when Chloe dumped her tray of food right next to Jake.

"Sup bitches, it's your girl, Chloe Valentine," She grinned, and took a seat. 

Dustin glared at Chloe and inched his lunch box away from her, scooting closer to Rich. 

In a span of a few minutes, the rest of their friends, or fellow timeloopers, came in a pair (Jeremy and Christine), and Michael was the last to come in with a slushie and a Wawa sandwich.

Jake cleared his throat to gather the attention of the other eight people who were chatting amongst themselves. "So! Everyone, you're probably wondering why Michael and I-"

Rich coughed.

"_And _Rich, called you to the library."

Dustin drummed his fingers on the table. "Yeah, why did you call us all here?"

Michael took a sip from his slushie. "Well, you see, last loop me and the boys, minus Jeremy and Dustin, all went to that techie place for our school shit. And holy shit, that place is _not _for school stuff only. In fact...it's a part of our plan to escape the fucking timeloop next loop."

A mixture of words came from everyone else all at once.

"This is incredible!"

"You mean we might get to see December 21st instead of waiting to die?"

"Hell yes! Bye bye to the fucking loop!"

"I can finally think about the future again!"

"No more having to worry about doing something wrong!"

"What's the plan, exactly?"

Jake rubbed his hands together. "That's what we discussed yesterday at the lab, and now we'll tell you. I don't think_ it _can hear us anyway. Hopefully not. But our plan is simple enough."

Michael patted Dustin's shoulder. "Dustin, you and I are gonna head into that lab, so you can dismantle it, and we'll both haul it into the school gym. It's big enough for a machine that size and there's a few outlets there that we can use to our advantage to plug the machine into the outlets."

Rich chimed in after Michael. "After that, Dustin and I will rebuild the machine using some of the notes Michael will take from the lab to explain how to build it. We're the smartest people to be able to rebuild that thing anyway."

"What about the rest of us? You three are gonna get all the glory?" Jenna questioned, her eyes narrowed. 

Jake looked at Jenna and got up from his seat. "That's just getting the machine. Now, according to some of the notes we looked through, we're using a method to try and kill this thing. We're gonna blow up that fucking thing, with dynamite, bombs, you name it. But we don't really know where we're gonna-"

"I can obtain those."

All attention went to Chloe, all seemed a little surprised minus Brooke.

Jake's eyebrows rose. "Where exactly are you gonna get those Chloe?"

"Really Jake? You of all people should know that my older sister has a weapons store in South Jersey. I'm sure my sister wouldn't think that me, a fashion diva who's the most popular junior in school, maybe even one of the most popular girls, would steal some of her weapons. She would just think she...misplaced them.," Chloe said, rolling her eyes. "Not like she cares about me anyway."

Jeremy's mouth twitched. "Is that even legal? Can bombs be in a weapon store?"

"Well, there's no bombs or dynamite. But I can give you guys grenades. Or any other weapons you might need. Or...gear I guess. I've only been there like, three times. My dad says my sister's a bad influence on me." 

Christine's eyes shimmered. "Do they have night vison goggles?"

"Yes...?"

"Fantastic! I've always wanted to wear night vision googles!"

Jake brought the conversation back to the plan. "So I guess Chloe's bringing the weapons...she can do it herself. We'll need two people to stay in the school so they can let us in and turn on the power in the school for when we get in. It's a school, they're not gonna have security guards or something."

Both of Brooke's hands flew into the air. "I can be someone to stay behind in school! I bet it's so creepy in the dark!"

"Not really, whenever we have a show during the night, it's just really dark...kinda scary but I got used to it, whenever I'm asked to get something from Mr. Reyes's classroom I gotta go through the dark hallways. I'll come with you, we can be buddies and tell each stories while we wait!" Christine babbled.

The blonde gave Christine a half smile. "I mean, we haven't really been that close during the timeloops. We could become closer friends, get some inside jokes...the whole ordeal."

A small chat came between the two, talking about a variety of things. Group discussion went throughout the rest of the table. But as everyone else was in conversation, Jake could only think about the most risky part of their plan.

He really didn't want to have two people do it. After all, they could be risking their lives. 

A sudden tap on the shoulder brought Jake back. "You alright there?"

It was Rich.

"Just thinking about how I'm gonna tell the others about...that part of the plan." 

"I'm sure they'll understand that it's important. I mean, won't everything just...reset again if it fails? It _is _a timeloop after all."

Jake thought about the words, and nodded slightly. "You're right." He cleared his voice to gain the attention of the others. "There's one more thing about the plan, you see...two people need to actually go inside the dimension. Kill the squip with the grenades. I mean...it needs to be killed with something reactive least. But it'll be risky, very risky. You have to like..stun the Squip thing. throw the grenades at it, and leave. And then we'll have to double check if it's dead or not."

Silence.

…

"I volunteer to be one of the people who goes in."

Jake's eyes darted toward the voice, which belonged to Jenna.

"But...but why?" Brooke questioned, her face grimaced.

"I mean, I'd be willing to risk maybe dying forever if it meant that I can save a majority. After all, I'm pretty sure I won't die anyway. It'll be easy peasy, just, stun the monster, detonate the grenades, throw said grenades at said monster, and leave, right?" Jenna said with determination drizzled in the tone. 

"But Jenna-"

"Brooke, you don't have to worry 'bout it."

The two of them went back and forth, with Jenna insisting everything would be fine, but Brooke shooting back with multiple things that could go wrong. In the end, Jenna had convinced Brooke nothing would go wrong.

"Who's gonna be the second person to go in? Unless...nobody else wants to go in which is completely understandable," Jake asked.

Another unexpected person volunteered to go in.

"I'll go in!" Jeremy said, raising his hand. 

Christine glanced at Jeremy, her mouth twisted. "You sure, Jer-Bear? I mean, you heard the risks Jake said about going in, right? But if you wanna go in, I understand."

"I wanna go in, it just feels right for me."

Christine gave Jeremy a peck on the cheek. "Whatever you say, just be safe destroying the Squip."

Jeremy's face turned scarlet.

Now that _that _was over with, Jake relaxed in his seat, and took a sip out of his Pepsi. As he ate and drank, Jake kept glancing at Rich. Whenever the shorter one even moved his head in the direction of him, Jake quickly looked back at his pizza.

Fucking cardboard pizza.

Jake had no clue why he kept wanting to look at Rich, maybe he was just thinking about that first loop...when Rich told Jake he liked him. And Jake told him he wasn't interested. And then the yelling.

Why did the yelling bother Jake so much?

He needed a break.

Jake moved away from the table, slipping away into a section of history books. A quick glance at the titles showed Jake that they were mostly about the Renaissance period. Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Raphael, all those artists.

He grabbed one out of curiosity, it was called The History of the Renaissance World. He slid down against the shelves and opened the book. Only a page in, and Jake felt like he was in Europe History class all over again.

It didn't take long for him to get snapped out of it, a certain purple haired girl was repeating his name.

"Jake."

"What is it, Jenna? If you don't wanna go into the dimension, it's fine we can just get someone else to-"

"It's not about that, it's just...I don't know why I wanna tell you this instead of someone else...but...' Jenna sat down beside Jake, and handed him something small.

A pair of earrings. They were shaped like small dogs, beagles to be specific. Although Jake was a little confused as to why Jenna decided to hand him these.

"Jenna-'

"Give those to Brooke after I go into the dimension. Just in case I don't...you know...come back. Give her those. And tell her..." Jenna trailed off, her hands squeezed into fists. 

Jake pocketed the earrings in his jacket, and let out a sigh. "Spit it out, Jenna. I think I have a feeling about what you're gonna say."

The girl's cheeks turned crimson. "I like Brooke. And I've liked her since eighth grade. I just...don't have the guts to tell her. Even if there's the chance of her liking me back, I'm still scared...I'm scared about what other people might say. And then you have the chance where she might not like me back. And I'll fuck stuff up."

"Jenna...don't think that way. I'm sure Brooke likes you back, I mean, I've seen the way she looks at you. And if she doesn't...I'm sure you two will remain friends."

"You really think?"

The two of their eyes met, before Jake gave Jenna a smile. "I'm positive."

Soon after an awkward small talk, Jenna left, but the puppy earrings remained in Jake's pocket. Jenna didn't take them back.

…

Guess Jake will have to hand them to Brooke once she headed in the dimension. And hopefully she wouldn't...well...

He tried not to think about it.

Jake put the book he was reading to the side, and he stared at, well, nothing. If this plan really worked, they'd be taken out of the loop as if nothing happened. Sure, Michael's moms knew about the loop, but Jake was told by Michael that his moms didn't know that they were inside in the oop. They know they exist. But they don't remember what happens in a loop.

So they were alone after this.

They've gotten so used to being trapped in the loop. Maybe not Dustin...he only got in after Rich told him and actually died himself from the monster. For sure, Dustin would be able to adapt back quickly.

But then there's Jake. The other people. They've been trapped in this loop for more than three years. Three years of the same day, repeated over and over. There's no telling how they would all be able to adjust to being out of the loop again. 

Jake got up from the floor, holding the book, and he _was _gonna head back to the table if it wasn't for Dustin who blocked his way.

People really wanted to talk to Jake today, huh?

Dustin stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yo, Jake. Christine and Rich are bailing school to hang out, can't believe they're abandoning me. My only friends." As he talked, Dustin pulled out his phone, tapping on it.

"And...why are you telling me this?"

"Oh, because if Christine's gonna steal my only friend outside of the family, then I'll just steal you so we can hangout," Dustin explained, giving a chuckle afterwards.

Jake sighed. "Why not? I mean, not like it'll matter in the long run, we're getting out tomorrow, hopefully, so let's go."

Dustin gave a lopsided grin, his arm going around Jake. "Fantastic. Let's go to Wawa first, and then we could head to my house. No one's gonna be home anyway. It'll just be me and you, fun right?"

"Yeah sure, uh-" Jake's face flushed. "You know Rich pretty well, right?"

The other boy did a half shrug. "I mean, sort of? We only became friends like...after he told me about the loops. And the he's been hanging out with you guys. But I mean I know his hobbies and what he likes, all that shit. Why?"

Jake took another quick glance at Rich. "I wanna...get interested in the stuff Rich likes. Like...I know he likes Renaissance stuff, he told me that on the drive to the lab. Uh, but what else does he like?"

"Jake. Dude. My main man." Dustin grabbed his car keys, swinging them around his index finger. "We're going on a field trip. A 'doing what Rich likes' field trip. And it'll last the whole day."

"The whole day?"

"Yes, the whole day. By whole day I mean we're gonna hang out the whole day and hope that fucking bastard squip doesn't come," Dustin said, before heading for the exit. 

"Wait, Dustin- you forgot your lunch-"

"Jake...the loop's gonna reset anyway, okay? Now c'mon, let's go."

On the drive to the Wawa, Jake stared out the window, his mind going back to his thoughts from before. About adjusting after escaping the loop. Jake had been a junior for three years, and he knew everything that would happen on just this day.

If Jake did this, that would happen, if he yelled at someone, another thing would happen. But now he was just gonna go back to...no loops? Nothing? No event that'll be exactly the same? 

He watched the clouds in the sky above him, slumping in his seat. It wouldn't be bad going out the loops though, he wanted to escape. But...how long would it take him to finally readjust to the world without loops? 

When the car finally pulled into Wawa, he heard Dustin's voice.

"Hey...Jake. Fuck school, right?"

Jake took off his seatbelt, opening the door to the car, stepping out. "Yeah, fuck school."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this was nice to write all I gotta say is that my birthday is in two days and be like dustin and jake. skip school to go to wawa 
> 
> favorite part about this chapter was probably writing jenna because man
> 
> Jenna's chill


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Rich

One thing Rich didn't expect to do when Christine dragged him out the library, was to theatre hop from movie to movie, with her predicting what everyone would do and what they would say during each movie. 

At the moment, they were both watching the new Jumanji movie, and not really paying attention to it, just chatting among themselves. 

"So Christine," Rich said as he took a sip out of his soft drink (it was actually fruit punch). "Why aren't you worried about getting caught? I remember when my brother and his friends would hop from movie to movie, they always get caught by one of the workers at their third movie every time."

The shorter girl twirled her hair as she spoke. "My older brother works here, he's usually the one who catches me anyway but lets me off the hook when I offer him a Panera Bread gift card. Now whenever I enter Target and go right to the cashier, they tell me that'll be 15 bucks. I can't believe half my allowance goes to buying Panera Bread gift cards I never even use."

Rich looked over at the screen, where at the moment two of the characters were fighting with each other. He always enjoyed the 90s classic film, and when the new one came out he was okay with it. But this...so called Jumanji movie...

It's shit. He already hated it and they're not even halfway through the movie. 

When Rich looked back at Christine, she was rambling about something, he didn't really know what so he attempted to tune in.

"-the fact that two people who never even did musical theatre in their life got the leads in a musical! It's absurd! Just because they can sing some stupid pop song doesn't mean they can act, dance, and get into character! Why was there only auditions for singing? And even if there was no dialogue in their show, they still need to know how to show expression in their singing and their body movements!"

"Uh, what are you talking about? I kinda zoned out for a bit."

Christine threw her arms out, nearly smacking Rich in the face. "High School Musical! The worst movie about people auditioning to be in a musical in the whole universe! Especially since they made the theatre kids the villains! What was Disney thinking? They were insane to do that! Everyone in my theatre club agrees that Sharpay and her brother were the best characters in that movie. And the other characters took it as an insult when she said that there's plenty of side roles? The side roles can be the best characters sometimes! Like Rizzo in Grease! Or Heather Chandler in Heathers! And she's the swing for the lead? It's absurd!"

Rich ducked out of Christine's arms. "I mean, I only watched it a few times with my brother. I actually watched the second one more than the first, a solid seventeen times. But I never knew there was a third one until sophomore year."

"Don't get me started on the second movie! It's best out of three, obviously, but they show Sharpay as the villain again. Again! Get a new villain that isn't a theatre kid! And Troy's friends got angry at him for getting promoted? And hanging out with pro basketball players? If one of my friends, say Jake, got that chance, I'd be happy for him!"

Just the word Jake made Rich's heart go a million times faster than it already was. _Jesus not again. _

_ "-_anyway, this movie's getting kinda boring. And so are the movies in general. It's a solid 5PM, wanna go to Beanies after this is over? Which yes, you wouldn't believe my mind when I found out we have a coffee shop in Middleborugh named Beanies, I lost my mind and asked my sister to take me there. Speaking of Starkid musicals, have you heard of them? I've been a loyal Starkid fan since 6th grade when I found Twisted on Youtube."

Rich blinked. "I, uh, yeah I know Starkid. I watched a few of them, only Twisted, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, and Trail to Oregon. I never really watched more but, uh, Black Friday should be coming soon, right?"

"I've heard rumors of February, but Starkid should confirm in on their YouTube channel soon. Well...if we even get out this loop. If we weren't even here, we would already know the story of the characters and who we like and who we don't and..." Christine trailed off, starting to fidget with some of the pins on her jacket.

Rich put a hand on her shoulder, and their eyes met. "If all goes well, we'll find out soon enough. We can watch Black Friday together when we get out of this mess. Which...I'm rattled about too. We don't even know if the plan we made is gonna work but...I'm sure everything will be okay in the end. After this...after these fucking loops, how about we watch Black Friday when it comes out together?"

Christine's mouth curved into a smile and she let out an excited squeal. "I would love that! But, uh, I feel like there's a few things we have to address before we start acting all...buddy buddy. As much as I would want to do that, I know that I've...done some things wrong. A lot of things wrong."

_Oh. _"We...can head to the Beanies now and, well, talk about it over a cup of coffee? And some cookies. All coffee shops have cookies. And I'm down for a cookie and coffee right now."

"But what about the movie? It'd be kinda weird if we left before the climax. And we're not even 15 minutes in."

Rich grabbed his bag and rolled his eyes. "I hate this movie already. Let's ghost the theatre."

* * *

It took about ten minutes to leave without looking suspicious, the employees clearly knew they came in way before the time they were currently leaving at. But eventually they just left through the backdoor and took that quick five minute walk to Beanies. 

Christine had ordered a Caramel Macchiato while Rich on the other hand had ordered a simple black coffee. 

The two were now waiting for their orders to come back, during that small period, Rich was staring at the surface of the small corner table. He knew exactly what Christine wanted to talk about. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together. 

At least she felt bad about what she did...

…

And Rich did too. 

Being trapped in an endless loop changes you, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst, and sometimes both. If you had to go through each day, over and over again, you would do things you normally wouldn't do.

Such as Day 107. When he got the guts to not only scream at Christine, but said some really terrible things at her. After all, Rich's mindset from before was that Christine wouldn't remember it the next day. No consequences would be made. 

That didn't exactly work out after those rumors came out.

God.

Rich was such a dumbass to never realize that how only seven other people were the only ones who changed anything during the loops. 

Their coffees were set in front of them, with barista telling them to call her over if there were any problems. Rich's hands tightened onto the mug of coffee, staring at Christine, waiting to see if she would talk first.

Another awkward silence filled the air between them before Christine had cleared her throat. "I'm sorry about being a bitch to you in the loops. I just...don't know why I did it. I mean, yeah I didn't really like change, at all. Makes me panic. But it didn't give me any excuse to treat you like how I did in all the loops prior to this. Especially when you tried to talk to other people, which, I dunno, I'm just a tad bit protective over Dustin. With...that car crash that happened. It was just me being terrible and-"

"I accept your apology, Christine. I know how it is. The loops. They get to you. It makes you feel like....no matter what you do you'll have no consequences to your actions. I'm sorry about the shit I did too in previous loops. I just always thought: oh nobody will remember this, I'll be fine," Rich paused and took a small sip from his coffee. "But it wasn't. It wasn't fine." 

The girl turned her head away for a moment. "It wasn't fine. Let's just agree that I was a bitch and..." 

Rich finished the sentence. "And I was a shit person."

Both of them took a sip out of their coffee again, the sound of bustling and other people chatting filling their ears to fill up another silence between the two of them. 

"Hey."

The small boy's eyes bounced onto Christine's again. 

"Since it seems like we're hopping around place to place, wanna just...talk? Maybe vent if you want? I actually have a treehouse in my backyard! Which is pretty neat if I say so myself. We can just climb up there...and talk for the rest of the night. We'll probably die by a tree falling on us and the treehouse goes _splat!_" 

Rich grimaced at the thought of a tree squashing him. "Thanks for putting that lovely thought in my head...but why not? We can talk about Starkid, shitty movies, the inaccuracies of Hamilton the Musical..." Rich raised his eyebrows. "Your relationship with Jeremy."

Christine's face flushed and her hands went over her face. "It's not my fault he's so cute. The moment I laid my eyes on him three years ago, I knew it was love at first sight. Besides, if you get to tease me about Jeremy. Can I tease you about a certain Dillinger?"

This time it was Rich's face that burned red and he put his hood over his face. "He said he didn't like me back and I yelled at him about it in a lot of loops....he's still really cute though. And now I even know his personality, he's such a dork. He thinks fuck music is the best music of all time." Rich's heart was leaping out of his chest as Rich continued to gush more.

"Rich, you do realize he said he didn't like you _three _years ago, right?"

"Yeah?"

"And that he actually knows who you are and your personality considering you, him, and Michael raided that lab place thing?"

"Yeah?? Where are you going with this?"

"Rich, there's a high chance he might like you back at this point."

Rich blinked.

And now his heart just fucking left his soul and was running in circles. "You have a point there...but I don't get why he would like me if he could have someone like, Chloe. He could have literally anyone in the school."

"Well, obviously he could have anyone in the school, but just listen for once, Goranski. You like Jake. You should do a confession, but part two, to him tomorrow, or well, next loop."

_"What?"_

"Maybe you could even write a song and do a little dance! Go all 21st Chump Street style and sing his name!" Christine cleared her throat and did a melody. "Jakey D~"

"_Christine_-" 

"The point is, you're gonna confess tomorrow, because even though we're 99% sure it'll work, there's a slight chance it won't. And I'm making sure you have your second confession, maybe even ask him on a date?"

Rich buried his head under his sleeves. "Please, stop bugging me about it and I swear on my life I will do my 'confession part two' to Jake tomorrow. But no song. And no dancing."

Christine shrugged. "But, this leaves the question, are we cool? Like, all that stuff we said when we got here...are we good with that?"

"Course we are!" Rich replied, beginning to get up and looking through his backpack for any extra dollars to tip with and pay with. Rich had eventually found some and left a solid five dollars on the table, Christine decided to be the one to pay for the drinks and the cookies they bought on the way out.

Rich really hoped that their plan would really work tomorrow, he wanted to do more hangouts like this, talk to people and laugh. 

List of things to do tomorrow:

1\. Murder a fucking inter-dimensional monster known as the SQUIP

2\. Go through with plan to murder said inter-dimensional monster

3\. Call the SQUIP a dick and an asshole

4\. Don't die.

5\. Do a Part 2 Confession to Jake Dillinger since the first one sucked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna apology for not updating this for about one month and a half, I had some writers block but now that's out of the way
> 
> they call it rich's confession part 2 because rich's first one was horrible as you saw in the first chapter
> 
> as for Christine singing the words Jakey D, she sung them in the Naomi tune from 21st chump street for sure lol

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is my first fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own? So, hopefully it's good? I hope you all just enjoy it, and get to like all the characters.
> 
> Oh, and please leave a Kudos if you can!


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